Players:
Summary: Anti-Mutant Protests hit Salem Center with violent results.
Date: September 15, 2012
Log Title: Death To Muties
Rating: R
Westchester - Salem Center
The parking lot that serves Salem Center is expansive. The mall building being the largest in the area, most of the traffic is aimed for there. However, there are a number of independent buildings along the edges of the parking lot and across the street. Benches dot the sidewalks that line the buildings, along with trash cans, bushes, trees and lamps. There is a large archway that leads to the mall entrance.
It's Saturday evening in Salem Center, their is a nice breeze in the air, the lights come on as the sun is starting to set leaving dark reds and oranges in the sky. Coming out of the Grind Stone is Nicholas, dressed in a pair of jeans and black shirt with a red Star Wars Rebel logo on the front. He instantly pulls out his cellphone and tries to figure out the best way home via GPS, though he's not having much luck since he's just standing in the middle of the sidewalk staring at the electronic map, pointing directions with his fingers, mouthing something to himself.
A woman steps out of a nice looking spirits shop holding a brown bag with a bottle in it. She places it in a larger shopping bag with a few other items she has purchased throughout the evening, pausing a moment to readjust items in the bag so that nothing gets crushed. Hildegarde is wearing a short blue dress with a brown coat overtop. Her hair is pulled up on top of her head and her tall boots ring out with a metallic clang as she walks. A few of the people she passes by turn to peer at the woman quizically, but she ignores them as she goes.
Hilde stops at a Hummer, pulling out a set of keys and pressing the "Unlock" button. The car beeps and she opens the door, placing the bag inside and climbing into the vehicle. She is about to turn the ignition when her phone rings. Hilde pulls her phone out of a purse and answers, beginning a conversation in German with whoever is on the other end of the line.
Having got a call from home this morning Lock's been told that his brother will be at home for the weekend so now that he's got somewhere to send it he can start about buying his brother a birthday present. Dressed in dark grey jeans, red converse and a blue lanturn corps t-shirt he crosses the road towards the center and spots Nick, crossing over he gives a wave, "Hey".
Across the way at the Grind Stone, a familiar but posh looking BMW M5 pulls up, Genoshan Embassy plates on it for those who feel hard-pressed to take a look. The lights turn off, but no one steps out for a moment. Inside, it's occupant opens up a laptop, which can be seen slightly as a back-glow from tinted windows. It's just working on some emails before going in and getting a hot cup of joe for the ride home apparently. Connor reads closely at something in one of the message received, and then goes back once more from top to bottom before exhaling a breath, before checking something on his smartphone. All out if view from most of the crowd.
Nigel emerges from a mexican fast food place near the mall, taking bites from a foil-wrapped burrito. Just enjoying an evening away from the school for a change. He begins to wander his way towards the mall, absently jingling a pocket of quarters and looking forward to some arcade time.
Sitting at a bench outside of the Grind Stone is a blind-folded girl, with a soft glow coming from a patch of skin beneath her throat. Sophie sits with her cane dangling from the loop around her wrist, and is quite engrossed in a book she is reading, by means of running her fingertips over the braille on each page. She tilts her head as Nicholas emerges from the place, and clears her throat softly. "Excuse me," she murmurs. "May I ask what time it is? I'm afraid I have lost track."
Fiona is not an unusual sight around Salem, coming out of the Coldstone Creamery with a nice mint ice cream cone. The bright turqoise ice cream stands in sharp contrast to her dark attire and purple eyes… she wears a black gothy dress and chunky boots. She scans the horizon upon exiting the shop, perhaps feeling something in the air? Or perhaps it's just her paranoid mind and demon playing tricks on her again…
Not to far down the street the sound of some sort of rally can be heard. The far away sound of a bunch of voices chanting something in unison ring throughout the area. As the sound grows louder, and closer, it becomes clearer what is being saying - "MUTANTS ARE SATAN'S CHILDREN!" over and over. The large group of close to two hundred people come into view, some on the back of a large flat bed truck and some walking along side or behind it. On the back of the flat bed truck is a large display of a few dummies hanging from the gallows with 'mutant' written across their chests. 'The Church of Humanity' and 'Friends of Humanity' logs and slogans can be seen on signs and on the truck itself. As it reaches downtown Salem Center the truck stops, some people look like regular civilians with signs and others are dressed more suspiciously in long grey coats with a white cross design down the front, most of the people dressed as so are on foot.
"Today! The Church of Humanity has decided to make it's stop here, in the sinful town of Salem Center New York!" A man dressed in reverend garb starts to preach. "You see in this small town they accept mutants!"
Rolling her eyes a little at the rally as she eats her ice cream, Fiona does happen to wander down in that direction - even if it's stupid, it's entertainment, right? People making fools of themselves in public… It seems to have slipped her mind that she could easily be mistaken for one of said mutants. But then again, she doesn't really think of herself as one so perhaps that could be forgiven… she smirks a little, finding the whole display to be so ridiculous that it's slightly amusing…
Hildegarde continues speaking on the phone. She places the key in the ignition and turns the electricity on in the vehicle just long enough to roll down her window as she continues to speak. She pauses her conversation and holds a hand over the reciever as she cocks her head, hearing something approaching from down the street. Hilde hangs up her phone without saying goodbye and steps out of the car, nearly hitting her door on the BMW parked next to her. She removes her sunglasses, just now noticing that she is still wearing them, and tosses them through her open window with her keys. By the time it occurs to Hildegarde exactly what is going on, it is apparent to her that it will be impossible to get her car out of the parking lot until the mob leaves.
Hildegarde glances around quickly, noticing Nicholas, Sophie and Warlock near a restaurant not too far off. She tries to wave them over, hoping to attract their attention and not the attention of the crowd. Hildegarde is on television enough that someone is sure to recognize her as a mutant. If they're lucky, maybe the four of them can hide in her car until the mob passes by.
Nicholas looks over at Sophie as she speaks to him. "Huh, oh time…give me a moment?" He says starting to try to close his GPS program to tell her. "Hey Lock…what the hell?" He says as he starts to hear the chanting and as soon as he sees the group, the phone slips from his hands and crashes to the pavement cracking open and the various parts sliding away from each other. "Lock, Sophie…we have to get out of here." Nicholas says quietly in a trembling voice.
That gets the attention of the person in the nice car. Immediately, Connor smacks open the suitcase next to him, and then pulls out his phone and dials up a number provided for just such a situation. All that appears on the phone's screen is the SHIELD logo, and a 'Call Connecting' logo flashing slowly. Leaving that sitting on the passenger side, he takes two things from his suitcase. A full cowl that he pulls on over his head, the eye pieces glowing blue-green as it interacts with the power he's kept hidden from everyone for a while. After that he takes his two knives and fighting staff from their spots and slides them into slots UNDER his shirt. After that… stripping down shows that the young man has been wearing a combat suit under the shirt and tie he normally delivers with. As he does this, more and more lights come on along lines of the suit as he lets loose more gravitic energy.
"…Nevermind the time, it is time to go," Sophie agrees. By the time Nicholas is answering her, she's already stuffing her book into a small backpack, which she slings over her shoulders as she stands up. The blind girl snaps her cane out to full length, fumbling with fingers that tremble. "Nicholas? I am glad it is you," she adds, with increased tension audible in her voice. She sweeps the cane around her feet, and holds her free hand out, patting the air in Nicholas' direction. "Lead me? Please?"
Nigel stops and looks towards the uncoming mob and sighs. "Oh you have got to be kidding me.. so much for a quiet evening." He takes another bite from his burrito and rolls his eyes a moment, seemingly talking to himself. "No, we can't go up there and tie that moron to a flagpole by his own underwear. If they get violent then we'll do somthing, but we're not picking a fight. Don't like what they've got to say but they have a right to be obnoxious clowns as much as anyone else."
Warlock looks round at the sound of the chanting and raises an eyebrow, "Well thats a little ironic, somethings never change i guess", he looks round at Nick and whispers, "Calm down, it's not like they can tell just by looking", spotting Hilde he waves back not sure of what she's signaling.
The Reverend goes on and on about the evil ways of mutants and how they're satan's children, put on this Earth to test their faith in God. The crowd around him cheers and seems to eat up his words. "Now is the time! There are several mutants here, at this moment, testing you! Now is the time to prove to God your faith for him and your love for him! God has lead us here to exterminate the pests from this Earth! To cleanse it and make it pure once again! Tonight! Let our cleansing begin!"
As the crowd cheers a large device that looks like a giant round speaker starts to rise fro the back of the top of the cab of the truck, as soon as it's raised a loud thrumming noise starts to emit and the force of the sonic cannon is enough to shatter the glass of the store windows and cars in front of it, not to mention the civilians who start to double over in pain from the sonic cannon.
While the device is not aimed directly at Hildegarde, it does still cause her quite a bit of pain. The woman doubles over and reaches for the car next to her to steady herself, causing the car to tip slightly from her weight. She presses the panic button on her phone and tosses it in the window of her car, managing to crawl around to the front of her vehicle and sit on the ground. They're not going to be able to wait this out. Sitting and hiding will only cause the people in Salem Center to be put in danger. Hilde presses her hands against her ears and glances back to where she saw the students earlier.
As the cellular signal continues to connect, the gorilla glass cracks and striates into a spiderweb, and the masked form in the car flinches away from the shattering glass as it bounces off the cowl. There's a sigh from under it, as suddenly the man vanishes, and appears on the rooftop above the group that has gathered, and the sonic cannon. The dampeners in the cowl cut down most of this to a powerfully annoying distraction, and then a hand is extended. Around the speaker there's suddenly an eruption of distorting blue-green light that almost pulls reality in on itself… and then suddenly there's a squealing crack and groan of metal just before the sonic weapon is yanked from it's home and is suddenly crushed into a perfect little sphere two inches across.
Nicholas isn't exactly in position to lead anyone anywhere as the whole scene is causing him to panic. He still takes Sophie's hand, obviously shaking like a leaf, as he tries to just hurry away. "C..come on…" She's hindering his running away like a terrified kid and then the sonic cannon sounds and as he's not directly in the blast, the sound is enough to cause him to cover his ears, letting go of Sophie's hand. "HIDE!" Is the best solution he can offer, and then the cannon is silenced and the panic really starts to set in. "I…I can't help you Sophie..just..hide.."
As the boom goes off, Sophie claps her hands over her ears, and drops straight to her knees. Her lips peel back and she screams, doubling over almost until her face touches the ground. Through it all, she can just dimly hear Nicholas shouting at her to hide; "WHERE?!" she shouts back, "Which way do I go? I AM BLIND, NICHOLAS!" Nevertheless, and heedless of the dirt now getting ground into her clothes, she does her best to crawl away, doing her best to orient herself with the cannon behind her. Still, she ends up just running into a store front; as she feels about with her hand there's the broken remnants of a window, and the blond girl cries out once more, leaving a splattering of red in the wake of her palm. She holds her hand instinctively to her chest, and for the moment just huddles where she is, while her cheeks glisten with teras and her blood drips down her front.
"HOLY MOTHER OF F***!!!!", Lock slams his hands to his ears as the sonics start to take effect. He reaches into his pocket and pulls it out of his pocket to hit the panic button but accedently crushes it in his hand. Falling to his knee Lock looks around just in time to see the source of the pain crushed, getting to his feet he looks round to Sophie and Nick, "I can carry Sophie if you lead the way Nick?", waiting for an answer he mouths, "What the fuck?"
Nigel winces and drops to one knee as the cannon goes off, dropping his burrito and clapping his hands over his ears. "Ok… yeah.. NOW we do somthing." There's a localized explosion obscuring him from view and we he emerges he's changed into Wildcard. His cell-shaded form ripples and flickers from the sonic barrage but he otherwise seems unphased. "Hey Jackass! If you're gonna blast the stereo at least play some freebird!" Reaching up one sleeve he pulls a large mallet from within it with an audible *pop*. As the speaker is destroyed he stops a moment and blinks. "Ok that wasn't me.. but what the heck. Church is out folks! The Deacons will be passing the plate as you leave to cover the damages.. and by the way your choir really sucks!"
As they start to unveil the cannon, Fiona's instincts take over. (You only deal with crazy super-people, technological or otherwise, before you learn not to stand around slack jawed) She seeks to run to the side out of its cone of influence, gritting her teeth as it catches her briefly before gets away from the bulk of the crowd. Her eyes momentarily (and involuntarily) glow a bright purple before she lets out a long deep breath.
Hildegarde is surprised by the sudden silence, peering around the side of her car to see Chase crushing the sound cannon. She does not recognize the man, but based on the powers she assumes it to be Magneto. She pauses momentarilly and looks more closely at the man. No. Not Magneto. But apparently on her side. That's all that matters. The woman stands and sprints toward the storefront where she had seen the students earlier, her metal boots ringing loudly as she moves. Hilde stops and stoops down by Sophie, "Sophie? It's me, Professor Hilde." She reaches out and touches the girl's arm gently, looking up at the other two. "We should probably get out of here."
Hildegarde is surprised by the sudden silence, peering around the side of her car to see Chase crushing the sound cannon. She does not recognize the man, but based on the powers she assumes it to be Magneto. She pauses momentarilly and looks more closely at the man. No. Not Magneto. But apparently on her side. That's all that matters. The woman stands and sprints toward the storefront where she had seen the students earlier, her metal boots ringing loudly as she moves. Hilde stops and stoops down by Sophie, "Sophie? It's me, Professor Hilde." She reaches out and touches the girl's arm gently, looking up at the other two. "We should probably get out of here."
With the cannon gone, the Reverend only smiles. "And now they reveal themselves." He says sounding pleased. "My Congregation, Purifiers, the mutant demons have shown themselves, see how they assume human form to trick you! You know what to do!" At that a few of the purifiers pull out various weapons from underneath their long coats. Three of them turns on Wildcard and a spray of bullets from an automatic rifle is fired at him. Chase on the other hand is turned on by the people on the flatbed and instead of bullets, a flame thrower is produced and a stream of fire starts to spread through where the cannon once was in hopes to hit him. "There's a bunch over there!" One of them points to Hilde, Sophie, Warlock and Nicholas and instead of bullets a barrage of what looks like tranquilizer darts is fired at the four. Fiona, having not displayed any superpowers yet is not at the direct attention of anyone, but she might notice the vast number of them arming themselves and getting ready for action.
"Oh Shi-…" The costumed hero mutters under his breath before dive-rolling to one side, and vanishes from view, only to reappear on the street under the bar's roof. Reaching behind him, the staff is withdrawn and then flicked to extend to it's full six foot length, and both ends start to shimmer and distort in the same manner as the now-dropped former speaker-cannon used to have. The glowing eyepieces flick around to the threats present. The right arm of the suit is scorched, shoulder to forearm marred by the flame, and that becomes the first target. He leaps, vanishing once more in the apex of it, to reappear a couple feet from one of the pair with the flame-thrower, hitting that one in the chest knees-first, while the staff is swung overhand like a baseball bat, coming down right on the join of shoulder and nack, "Two things you always find in abundance with ignorance. Fools, and the mob."
Wildcard just laughs as the hail of gunfire blasts into him. Punching holes the entire way through his toon form allowing light to shine through. He discards the mallet which disapears and takes his hat off, pulling a Tommy gun from within and before returning the ballcap to his head. "My turn! And let's be fair folks.. I'M the one you should be worried about!" He sprays the Tommy gun into the crowd, the weapon spewing energy bolts that blast holes through the clothing of whoever they hit but don't penetrate the skin, instead throwing them backwards and just hurting REALLY bad."
Warlock is one lucky mutant today all things considering, one of his fields uses that Lock has yet to get a chance to fully take advantage of is his skin-tight force-field which is able to deflect the tranquilizers fired at him, hoping to use this to give the others a chance he moves to stand in front deflect as much as he can, "Fucking church!".
If Sophie could see Nicholas' face right now, maybe she'd understand. The teen is white and breaking out into a cold sweat as he's doing his best just trying to focus on a way out of the area. As the rifles turn on them he puts out both his hands and tries to put up a telekinetic shield, it goes up for a second and then fades out, as a dart hits him, and sticks, in his arm. Right after he manages to put up a shield deflecting a several of the darts.
Sight would likely bring a great deal of understanding to Sophie; but as it is, she understands perfectly well, as the regrettably familiar sound of gunfire going off fills the air. She flinches reflexively, holding up her wounded hand to shield herself; fortunately, the abilities of Nicholas and Warlock do a much better job of that than her arm could. "Help me," she begs plaintively, while reaching up to where Hildegarge is standing. She puts her good hand against the wall of the building behind her, gingerly feeling for a good handholds before getting up to a crouch. "I don't know which way to go," she adds. "I hear Locke as well as Nicholas, are they alright?"
Of course she is ignored! She's always ignored! Not that she minds it. Nope. What with the whole not really having any supernatural powers anymore for the most part… she peers up over the hood of a car, taking stock of the situation. A whole bunch of guys with guns. Let's see: Nope! Though, she does keep an eye out for any that she could use those judo-style moves that Donna taught her on… Though again, she's not incredibly keen on that…
Hildegarde's eyes flash wide as she feels a few of the darts strike her in the shoulder, the rest of her blocked by Lock for the moment. She reaches behind her and brushes them off. "Tranquilizers? Was anyone hit?" She glances around and sees Nicholas has one in his arm, standing to pull it out of him quickly. She reaches down and grabs a few of the darts that bounced off the forcefield, bending the tips and placing them in Sophie's bag. "Sophie, there are some darts in your bag, be careful if you reach in there. I want to get it back to the school…" Just in case, she'd like someone to take a look at what's in there. Hilde turns and faces the crowd, looking around quickly. She sees nothing they can use as cover right away and decides just to stomp down on the sidewalk, reaching down to grab the seam as it juts up from the ground. She flips the cement slab up to form a makeshift wall for the four of them. "Is anyone hurt?"
"You all know our goal here!" The Reverend shouts before he seems to start taking cover on the flatbed. Those that are hit backwards by Wildcard's Tommy Gun fly backwards, falling off the float knocking some of their brethren over. As Chase lays a beating on a few of the Purifiers, one of them pulls out a blade, made from Vibranium, and goes to slash then stab at Chase from behind. Since Wildcard is a bit of a threat, someone pulls out what looks like a t-shirt gun and fires a netting from it straight at Wildcard with the goal to entangle and slow him up. Towards Hilde, Warlock, Nicholas and Sophie canisters spewing smoke are thrown in their direction filling the air, it's not a gas, just a thick fog like substance meant to obscure vision.
Ducking behind the cement wall Lock looks to Hilde, "I saw you pull a load of those out of you, can you take those? if so i could grab Nick and you could grab Sophie and run?", he starts panicing as the smoke starts surrounding them, "Please? running sounds good, could really go for running, an awful lot of running sounds good", how do you tell Lock is scared? babbling.
The slash hits low to the back, slicing into the Shi'ar matrix-weave armor and digging into the layers enough to leave a shallow cut there, enough to draw some blood. That causes the man to spin, and as the stab comes he automatically moves for a bind-lock, a twist, and then the knife is suddenly in his off-hand and the butt strikes the attacker in the forehead, knocking him down and out. Moving on instinct, the clad and slightly wounded warrior throws the knife with uncommon skill, striking one of the ones with the netgun right in the shoulder, sending him spinning and down. But that lesson learned, the form vanishes once more, and suddenly is in the middle of the group with the smoke canisters. Instead of hitting any of them, the glowing end of the staff stabs into the ground solidly, putting cracks in the pavement as a distortion ripples out from him… a gravitic shockwave that sends the group up in the air and flying all directions!
Wildcard is hit with the net and stops a second, his skin turning into a silvery liquid metal as he just steps through the netting and reforms. Though now he has a Tommy gun in each hand. He grins and speaks into a bad schwarzenegger accent. "Run from me if you want to live!" He opens fire again, spraying the crowd again with one gun while focusing the other on the cab of the truck. While the blasts from the guns are only hurting his living opponents against the inorganic truck they rip into it like it was tissue paper, rather than causing pieces to fly off the blasts simple make parts start to crumble and fall off. While he actions seem entirely random there's a method to his maddness.. he's trying to focus as much attention on himself as possible, make himself the biggest threat. "Come on ya worthless bigots! Quit picking on the small fries and show some guts! Bring it on!"
"Thanks." Nicholas says to Hilde as he uses his powers to lift a nearby mail box and throw it in the direction of the mob, the mailbox feebly makes it way towards the target as his powers start to fade out. "I can't use my powers." He says moving his arm forward several times trying to move the mailbox, but nothing happens, then the smoke starts obstructing his vision and he takes a few steps backwards, hitting the wall. "Warlock? Ms Hilde? Sophie?"
"OKay," Sophie replies as she's told about the darts in her bag; not that she failed to notice something was going on anyway. "Where is Nicholas?" She flinches as she heads the concrete being ripped up, but she can hear Hildegarde putting in the effort, and isn't in a condition to bolt anyway. Her wounded hand takes on a soothing white glow, and she reaches out in the air in the direction where she last heard Hildegarde, to plant her palm on the professor, thus accomplishing two things; she leaves a bloody handprint, and suffuses the professor's body with her healing radiation. "I do not know if I can help against tranquilizers," she mumbles, "but I can at least try." Once she hears Nicholas speak, she turns towards him, and holds out her hand, still glowing white. "Take my hand, Nicholas," she murmurs, the tension still strongly present in her voice though she does her best to keep it at bay, "Let me try to help, si? Maybe I can help?"
Purifiers and Friends of Humanity members seem to be not putting much of a fight individually but there are just so many of them and they seem to be relentless. With Connor and Wildcard proving to be threats, the men and women start to take drastic action. Men with assault rifles fire at Connor from one direction while others with flame throwers light up the area Connor is in trying to over whelm him. Wildcard also receives similar treatment but with a hail of bullets and two concussion grenades are thrown in his direction. A second barrage of tranquilizer type darts is fired towards Hilde, Sophie and Warlock, but it seems like they're aiming more at Warlock than the two girls.
Before Nicholas can grab Sophie's hand, there's a buzzing sound, like of electricity followed by a loud, pain filled scream from Nicholas, and as the smoke starts to clear only seconds later, he seems to be gone.
Hildegarde looks up over the wall. "Is that…Wildcard? We can't leave him behind to deal with all those people by himself." She looks down at Sophie's hand and shakes her head to Lock, "I will be fine. I weight nearly a thousand pounds. It would take an elephant tranquilizer to take me down." She peers over the wall again and sees Nicholas's powers fail, narrowing her eyes with confusion. "Running would be a good idea, but not for all of us. Someone has to help Wildcard." She points through the smoke, "Right on the other side. My keys are still in the Hummer. If you can get to it, maybe I can break a hole in the middle of that mob…Come down on them and just rip the ground up from under them."
Hildegarde turns back to face Nicholas and topples over, looking down at her feet in confusion. "Um…I…" She stands again and lifts her feet, it takes visible effort. "My boots are heavy…I've felt this before. I lost my powers too." She looks concerned. When Nicholas vanishes, she looks even more concerned. "Nicholas!?" She moves toward where he was. "Yes…Running is a good idea."
It'll take more than a few needles to breach Lock's forcefield, his eyes widen in shock as Nick vanishes, "Nick!", he clenches his fists, "I can't fight but i can try and protect the two of you if we run, i can carry Sophie so she doesn't risk falling", he looks around and sighs, "I can carry you too miss if you're hurt". Lock can take carrying both Sophie and Hilde but will lose his force field.
The blind girl jumps visibly as reaching forwards does not bring her into contact with Nick like she thought it would, and instead she just plants her hand on the building. "…Nicholas? Where did he go?" Her voice becomes more shrill as panic sets in once again. "Professor Hilde, you've lost your powers?! Mi Dios!" Sophie sucks in a deep breath, and lets it out slowly, forcing some of the tension out of her muscles. "Aunque camine por el valle de la sombra de la muerte," she mumbles, "no temere mal alguno, porque tu eres conmigo." She allows the white glow to vanish from her palm, and rises up to her feet, still staying close by HIlde. She bobs her head in Locke's direction, and swallows audibly. "Let us run," she agrees. "I… would not object to being carried."
So, the situation really seems to have gotten out of hand! Fiona wouldn't have guessed that they would have brought /flamethrowers,/ of all things. So, of course, she does what any normal person would do in this situation - she calls the cops, quickly relying the information as to what's going on. As if there probably weren't a dozen people already doing that. After that? Well… she glances over to the mutants trying to escape quickly, and then over at the one who seems to be successfully fighting them - Connor, though she obviously doesn't know that. Aside from that… they DID have a flatbed truck, right? That someone was probably driving? That people are probably /not paying attention to?/ Maybe the keys are still in it? She creeps closer to it, using the fact that she has yet to be noticed to hopefully gain entry to the driver's side door; her current ace in the hole, the tazer that Donna gave her months ago for self defense (along with judo lessons) is gripped easily in one hand, electricity arching menacingly for whoever she might happen to meet inside.
Hildegarde reaches down and unbuckles her boots, removing them and placing them next to the wall. Hildegarde moves her arms and looks down at herself. "You still have your powers? Maybe it wasn't a tranquilizer. Maybe the dart did that. Either way, I don't feel tired. Sophie, don't lose that bag. They'll definitely want to look at what's in there when we get back to the school."
Hildegarde glances around the barrier again. "They seem preoccupied…" She looks around again and sees that the crowd is a little thinner than it was. "Lock, you can block the darts? Can you drive? It looks like…If you can get to my car and bring it over here, we might be able to push through the front of the crowd." She hesitates. "If you're not opposed to potentially hitting some of them with the car."
Connor takes the barrage head on, the bullets simply passing through him though the grenades knock him off his feet and send him tumbling backwards. He stands again cackling madly "Oh yes.. let's kick this up a notch." Holding out both gloved hands there are a pair of soft *pops* and a large black cartoon-style bomb appears in each hand with the fuse already lit. He hurls them into the crowd. "BAM!" When the bombs detonate it's like the blast of his guns only on a larger scale. People are thrown back with their weapons shattered and their clothing in tatters. Spotting the others having trouble he grits his teeth "Dammit.. Ok ok! I can't play with these fools anymore I get it!" Sticking his thumb in his mouth his cheeks puff out as he blows and he begins to increase in size.
Warlock is torn, he wants to help but hitting someone with a car? "I'll get the car but hitting people i dunno", he breaks into a run towards Hilde's car before he realises he can't drive… Panicing he goes with plan b, picking up the car and using it as a shield to get to the girls. And he almost manages it you know? but theres always chances for mistakes and Lock's comes just as he drops the car by the girls and is his by a tranquilizer before he can get his field back up.
From his position among the fury of bullets and sound… is nothing. Scorched earth and bullets that have struck some of their own, the costumed form is nowhere to be found. Free but not uninjured from that deathtrap, the armor has three new dents in it where pistol rounds attempted to penetrate, caught and kept close. Once more he drops down into another pack of men, this time hitting with as large a concussion bubble as he can throw, before moving to stand… and just points at the Reverend, "You." The electronically distorted voice says, "This began with you… this ends with you."
Lucky for Fiona, the men driving the truck haven't noticed her yet, so she's able to make her way up to the door unseen. Wildcard is having a lot of luck putting men down but they seem to be relentless in their attempts to put down the mutant. "What kind of freak is he?!" One of the men yell as they start firing more tranq darts in his direction. "Don't worry about him, he's not one of the targets! Focus on what we came for!" The reverend yells from his covered position. The Purifiers turn their attention on Warlock and a second barrage of smoke canisters is thrown towards him and the car at the same time a net is fired in his direction. They try to cut off Warlock from Hilde and Sophie but spraying bullets at the ground between him and the girls.
There's a laugh from the Reverend as Connor approaches him. "This didn't start with me and it will not end with me. This started with Gods will and if you wish to kill me now, at least I will have died doing God's work and my death by the hands of a mutant will just be fuel for the passion of the Church of Humanity!" He lets out another long laugh and puts both arms out. "Now you can kill me now or you can surrender, either way, we'll keep coming."
Easy peasy, right? Fiona moves fast, raising her tazer up to the window, and then smashing it open with the butt of her weapon - only to shove the business end of it directly into the neck of the guy driving the truck, as she uses her other hand to open the door from the inside - if successful, throwing the driver to the ground and sliding behind the wheel.
"Lock!" Hilde cries out at the boy as he drops the car. The bullets are spraying all over, there's no way to get to him and the car without running through the death-trap. "Lock! Can you get into the car? The keys are on the seat. It'll block the bullets!" She frowns. Probably not all of the bullets. And she thinks that only the driver door is unlocked, that's facing the crowd. The woman remains half-hidden behind the wall, a hand reassuringly placed on Sophie's shoulder. "Lock? You weren't hit, were you?"
Wildcard grows in size quickly, the continued barrage of gunfire still ignored as they have no affect on his transformed state. Reaching his full 30ft height he gives a quick spin and when he stops he stands as a robotic version of himself "Alright folks.. time to go! Transform and Roll out!" There's a sound from an old 80s cartoon as the robot Wildcard transforms into a.. semi cab? His green grinning face across the grill like the truck from maximum overdrive the engine roars to life and air horns blare as he heads towards where Hilde and the others are, anyone stupid enough to get in front of his it knocked flat and run down but like all of his attacks there's no serious injurys as a result.. just alot of pain.
Warlock pulls a dart out of his arm, "Oh, well that's never good", he's about to try and get into the car when he's knocked to the floor as the net hits him, he doesn't answer Hilde's question as he's busy trying to wrestle out of the net, having some issue calling up his strength.
Sophie mumbles in spanish under her breath while she's waiting to be rescued in some manner. While she's at it, she gets another tranquilizer dart in her backpack — though this one doesn't have a bent tip, and it's abruptly lodged in the side of it, and is stuck there pretty good. The blind girl doesn't appear to have noticed. "I am afraid," she whispers. "What should I do, professor?" She swallows audibly, as she clenches her wounded hand into a fist and holds her other hand around it. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
The Reverend suddenly rises up into the air, surrounded in that crushingly tight grip, and once more the staff is slammed down in the concrete, shrapnel from it flying out like a grenade at the ones charging the masked man. Clearing some more room, he brings the Church of Humanity leader close enough that they are almost touching, but the robe-clad arms are pinned, locked in a painful embrace of power as another hand comes up with a glowing sphere in it, "I choose neither. I am going to send you some place where your ignorance, your bigotry and your rhetoric will do you no good."
The driver gets tazed and lets out a scream before slumping over, the second man in the cab reacts fast and pulls a shotgun from between his legs and quickly fires two shots in Fiona's direction. As soon as Warlock is netted, more smoke canisters fill the area where he was leaving it hard to see his location. There's the buzzing of something electrical around Warlock. The Reverend just laughs at Connor, making a few grimaces of pain as he's squeezed though. "We got what we came for, you'll be next Connor. It's time for us to retreat!" He yells to the mob.
Many men are flattened to the ground as Wildcard runs over them and heads towards Hilde and Sophie, with the order to the retreat he's left alone for the most part. The sound of sirens from the police being called can be heard approaching the area.
As Warlock is surrounded by smoke he yells out in pain as he feels like he's being tazered before passing out and disappearing along with the smoke much like Nick did a few minutes ago.
As Fiona catches two shotgun blasts, point blank, to the face/midsection, the force of it knocks her out on the ground, out cold, bleeding profusely. How awesome is that? Actually, it's pretty not that awesome, and she's probably, you know. Dying, perhaps, or something. Something like that.
Hildegarde yells out when she sees Warlock taken down by the net. She glances around at the confusion and ducks down again next to Sophie. "Sophie, I need you to stay here for a moment. We may need you to heal some people in a few minutes, so try not to get hit by any of the darts." She glances over the wall again, "Nigel is coming as a car. Yes AS a car. When he gets here get in and stay down. I'm going to go try to get Warlock. He's in trouble." She leans in and kisses the girl on the forehead before turning to dart toward the cover of her Hummer. She dives and lands behind the vehicle, but feels a sharp pain in her side. Hildegarde reaches down and sees blood on her hand. She has been shot several times in the chest and stomach. The woman reaches toward Warlock, still several feet away. The last thing she sees before the world goes dark is Warlock fading from view.
Sophie gasps, reaching out a hand after Hilde, "Do not leave me!" she gasps; but then Hilde is gone, leaving the blind girl all alone. She huddles where she is, and fresh tears trickle down her cheeks as she waits. "Nigel?" she whispers. "Are you there?" She pauses, and grips her cane tightly, before sweeping it in an arc around her. "Is… anyone there?"
The Semi cab pulls up with the hiss of brakes, the side door opens and robotic arms reach out to grab Hilde and pull her inside. "Damn lady lay off the twinkies.. gah my aching suspension.." Another hand takes Sophie by the wrist to lead her into the cab "Got no time, fuzz are coming we'll beat the location of the others out of these creeps another time! Come on Sophie we gotta boogey!" The voice is metalic, but still that of Wildcard.
The glowing ball is pushed into nothing, and there is a spinning disc of power that resolves into a portal. The now-outed Connor tilts his head to one side, and then says, "Your people touch them… ANY of them… and I will show you every reason why it was a very bad idea." His head turns to look at the portal, and then he says to the Reverend, "I hear the weather in Genosha is a touch rainy this time of year. You might want to take a poncho." And then the man is tossed in… landing in a clearing between heaps of rubble on an island thousands of miles away. After that, the portal closes, and the young warrior turns to look at the damage wrought, and then sees the shot and broken Fiona.
With the reverend gone, the man in the passenger seat, who shot Fiona, kicks the unconscious man out of the door and and slides into the drivers seat. Someone yells out "Reverend Daniels has been defeated, everyone retreat!" Purifiers pile into the flat bed as it starts to pull off, a good number getting on but a few dozen are left behind after being beaten on by Wildcard, Chase, Fiona and Hilde. The truck speeds off and only moments later police cars, ambulances and fire trucks start to show up to the scene.
Fiona is, of course, still laying on the ground. Where she was. She's still alive if only just barely, but there's blood pretty much everywhere and well… she's not exactly a pretty sight right now, besides that. One of her hands seems grasped around a set of keys around her neck. Of course, she's super lucky that connor is there… probably.
Sophie shrieks once again as a robotic hand latches on to her; but at least she recognizes Nigel's voice, and she calms down as she allows herself to be pulled towards the… cartoon-man-semi-thing. "Nigel," she breathes. "Is there anyone else here who is wounded?" She swallows audibly. "If the bad people are leaving… I cannot go, if people are hurt. I have a duty to heal them." She reaches up and grasps the wrist of the robotic arm with her bleeding hand, and does her best to come to a halt just outside the truck. "I can't just leave," she reiterates. "I have nothing to fear from the police, si? If I can save someone's life, I must."
Wildcard seems to sigh "Look you wanna heal somone heal Hilde, she's bledding all over the sleeper. We still got a few dozen purifiers out here and the cops are coming now we gotta get the heck out of here, the paramedics can patch up anyone else."
Picking up Fiona, the masked man looks around for a long moment and then the pair just vanish. And as Fiona gets to experience life as herself in a world where the hippie generation took power, took over the culture, and turned America into one giant Woodstock, seeing herself in tie-dye, tassles, and a pair of purple sunglasses… the pair appear in the middle of the closest Emergency Room… the X-mansion's infirmary He moves her immediately to a gurney for the nurses to see and begin work. No comment is made… he just turns and there's a ripple in the air as he's gone… leaving the girl in the best care he knows for wounds like this. Alien regenerative technology.
Sophie breathes out heavily, and allows herself to be drawn up into the truck. The blind girl snaps her cane into itself, and wipes her hand on her clothing, leaving a bloody smear on her skirt. "I didn't know professor Hilde was hurt," she replies, "Please, get me alongside her, and I will fix her up." She pats about, looking for Hilde, whie her hands take on their soft white glow once again. "Hurry," she urges. "And… let us get out of here, as you say, si?"
The mechanical hands guide Sophie to where Hilde is sprawled in the back of the cab before retracting into the walls. The engine roars to life again as Wildcard speeds off before the authorities can get there in force. "Hang on, we're eastbound and down!"
By the time the police, fire department and ambulances arrive, Wildcard is already pulling away with Sophie healing Hilde in his truck. Connor's successfully teleported Fiona to Xavier's in time where Dr. Reyes and the high tech machines immediately start working on healing her up. As for Warlock and Nicholas, no trace of them can be found.
Sophie doesn't so much hang on to something, as she hangs on to Hilde, planting one hand on the woman's chest and one on her belly, as she focuses on radiating as much of her healing energy into the wounded professor as she can manage. "Wait, you can turn into vehicles, Nigel?" The blind girl perks an eyebrow upwards, pausing as she concentrates on her patient. "…Could you become an airplane?"
In the midst of the emergency vehicles and the chaos, the lone BMW M5 pulls out of the Grind Stone's small parking lot. With the windows all gone, Connor's face is visible, and his smartphone is broken… so using the phone inside the vehicle itself, he places a single call, saying to the person that picks up, "Uncle Yuri… Mom and Dad might be in danger… I need your help. Please… call me when you get a chance. Use the emergency phone, like you told me."
Wildcard is burning rubber back towards the school, fighting the urge to run the Purifiers off the road first but Nigel is nagging at him to get the wounded back safe. "Probably, but not with passengers and it's not a trick I've done too many times before. Just hold on!" If the gates to the school aren't already open he simply crashes through them. Coming to a screeching halt outside the building. Sophie and Hilde find themselves on the ground as the truck just disolves around them as Wildcard returns to 'normal' "MEDIC!!" He pulls his cell from his pocket and jams on the panic button as he flickers and fades, returning to Nigel who's eyes roll back in his head and passes out. Having exhausted himself as Wildcard.
