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Summary: Connor and Donna decide to seek vengeance upon Envy for all of the variously horrible things she has done.
Log Title: Do I Make Myself Crystal Clear?
Rating: R
NYC - Mutant Town - Back Alley
Heavily littered with newspapers, knocked over garbage cans and other unidentifiable pieces of refuse, this alleyway cuts a narrow pathway between two of the older buildings in the neighborhood. The mouth is lined with dumpsters and garbage cans, making it a bit of a deterrent for people seeking this alley as a pass-through. This doesn't stop homeless and fringe elements from using it, however. Rusty fire escapes dot the sides of the close buildings; they are close enough that one could easily jump from one side to the other but a slip from one of the higher landings could be fatal. Light even during the daytime hours is sparse, though it's easier to see down from one end to the other in the day. At night, it's nearly impossible.
Attacks happen every day in New York City… it's an unfortunate par for the course. But when a Xavier's student gets attacked, at times there can be a much more different response. Instead of the police looking for Envy, a lone individual has set out to find her. Dressed in combat black, an overcoat keeping most of it hidden from view, Connor has one of the punks from Mutant Town who have come to support the MLF and their related nastiness pinned to the wall on the end of a fighting staff, and says to him in a very calm tone, "This is how it's going to be. You either tell me where she likes to hang her sadistic little hat, or we get right to the part where I violate some of your basic human rights." Then the pressure is added, and something gives inside, "Oh… I forgot. You prefer to be a mutant." There's no vitriol in the words, but he lets the ganger-dressed kid fall and clutch where he his collarbone is fractured, "What's it going to be."
The boy shoots a venomous look at Connor, holding up his hand as though preparing to attack. Then the boy smirks and spits blood onto the ground. "You dumb bastard. Looking for Envy is like looking for death." He lowers his hand. "If you really want to die that badly, she's supposed to drop something off for the Yakuza in China Town later tonight." He lets out a pained laugh. "So go ahead, go try and tangle with Envy and a dozen pissed off mobsters."
"Enjoying the night life, lad?" a voice calls from the alley. Slipping around the corner, a short, simply dressed woman leans against one of the buildings, checking her fingernails. "Don't rush, by the by, I've more than enough time for you to have your fun."
Not even looking over his shoulders, Connor takes a breath, and then slips his hand inside his jacket, and takes out a slightly boxy, oversized pistol. Aiming it at the punk, he replies, "China Town. Yakuza. You DO realize you're mixing your cultures there… the Yakuza are Japanese." His shoulders rise and fall as he pulls the trigger, and hits the guy with a stun blast, the electromagnetic bolt designed to harmlessly knock out most normal people for a time. That taken care of, he turns towards where Donna is and says, "About a year and change ago I warned this whack-job about what I'd do if she came on my radar again. I was not as seasoned then… but I'd like to think I'm a man of my word." He motions with his head towards the street, "I have a spare helmet with me if you'd like to come along."
NYC - Chinatown
The hustle and bustle of Chinatown. Here the streets are always crowded, the traffic is always jammed and street vendors are everywhere. Chinese restaurants and Chinese bakeries litter the streets along with various small shops selling everything from swords to bowls to plastic toys. If your looking for bootlegged purses, movies, toys, anything, you can find it in Chinatown at low costs.
The streets of China Town are moderately crowded today. The fair weather has the denizens of this part of the city bustling about as they usually do, the scent of fish and random vegetables heavy in the air. One cannot go far down the street without being offered a handbag, a watch, or a foot massage. Down one of the narrower streets of this section of town are some businesses that look to be a little less popular. There are fewer people and the street ends at a wall. A door at the end of this street has a couple of severe looking Japanese men standing outside of it in suits.
A woman appears at the end of the street and moves toward the end of the alley. Eris is wearing black pants, a black tank top, and tall boots. Her eyes are obscured by sunglasses and she carries a black bag in one hand. When she reaches the door she says something in Japanese to the guards and enters the establishment.
A small Ducati with the emblem for the Genoshan Embassy enters into the fray, the pair on it carrying that giant invisible 'Back Off' sign that so many people in this direction have come to know. As Connor cruises the pair through the main thoroughfare, he passes just in time to see the back of his target's head, and continues to cruise past until he can find a safe spot to park, "… So. This feels completely like a bad movie. I mean we're about to basically break in the door on a bunch of Yakuza cutting a deal with a mutant terrorist. You're sure you're allright with going along?" He asks as he takes off his helmet, looking to the woman sitting on the back.
"A moment to change," Donna says, slipping off the back of the motorcycle and handing over her helmet, "and I'd be quite pleased. After all; Yakuza only have guns, lad. Trust me when I say, I've seen far, far worse." With that, she slips into the nearest alleyway, the shadows completely obscuring her from view in the blink of an eye.
Cutting though Chinatown Mikhail is heading to an address he was given a couple of days ago, dressed in dark grey jeans, a blue and white shirt and white sneakers he catches a scent he reckognises and begins following it out of curiosity. Turning a corner trying to avoid bumping into the crowd around him he spots the two on the bike, his confusion isn't lifted untill Connor takes off his helmet and Mik gets his answer as to whose scent he just picked up.
A few minutes pass and two more men come out from inside of the building. They say something to the guards and all four appear to be on alert now. A few minutes after that the door opens again and Envy steps out into the street again. The woman is suddenly wearing a long black coat, which seems a bit out of place on such a warm day. She motions to the guards and they all go back inside. Eris glances around the alley before continuing forward toward the main street.
Connor is wearing a jacket as well, another person who is dressed unseasonably… but that is made rather obvious when he steps into the alleyway to block the woman's exit. The visor-style shades cover his eyes and keep him from being fully identified, and a year since the pair had last met might make his voice a bit unfamiliar, but the young man says, "I… well, I don't really hate to tell you this…" Starting off with a bit of a sardonic wit, "But… you've gotten back on my radar, Envy. I gave you a warning a bit ago about what would happen if we had to face off. I'm here to follow through. Xavier's is off limits. The students. The Staff. Everything. Today… I am going to beat it into you one hundred times until it's tattooed in bruises."
"Oh, *I* remember *you!*" says a lilting, pleased voice from the shadows. Wraithlike, a small, pale woman slips into view, wearing something resembling a black leather leotard, matching thigh-high boots, half-skirt, and crimson military-style beret. Her visible blue eye is as wide and pleased as her voice is chipper, and the chains holding the book in place at her hip chime softly with each step she takes toward Connor's side. "Oh how lovely, I've been wondering how badly I would have beaten you before…" Her mouth splits in a wide grin, as a pair of blackened steel balls *thump to the pavement on either side of her, pulled from seemingly nowhere. "Come on then, if you think you're hard enough."
You aren't carrying anything.
Eris continues walking forward until she hears Connor address her. She gives the boy a slightly confused look. "Who…Are you again? I'm sorry, I'm kind of terrible with the names of people who are so obviously beneath me." And then there's a great laugh as Envy claps her hands together. "Little miss ebola! Oh I wondered what happened to you." And then her expression changes to a slightly more hostile one, "Bitch, I'm made of DIAMONDS! Ain't no one harder than me. And in case you forgot…" She raises a hands to point her fingers at the two in front of her, "Diamonds don't conduct electricity." The womans nails extend rapidly, shooting toward Connor and Donna like spears.
Connor sidesteps to the right and away from Donna, leaving her as much room as possible to move, and going back into his jacket, out comes the pistol, the barrel in the center of it glowing with a blue-white, "Sorry… I gave you my best line back there. I'll have to settle for this." And levelling the weapon he flicks the selector twice and then pulls the trigger. Instead of a bolt of EM energy coming out, a wave of force lances out, nearly filling the alleyway, and knocking garbage, garbage cans, and any other detritus in it's path towards Envy, carrying along like the shockwave of a sonic boom. The blue light goes red as the weapon starts to recharge, but the young man's eyes are glimmering with a blue-green fire just at the edges.
"You have no *idea* how happy you just made me," Donna replies to Envy's shouted challenge, ducking to one side away from the spears, one of the heavy steel spheres singing out toward Envy's sternum. "Oh *do* please show me! I'd so love to see that!"
Mikhail runs forwards as Envy attacks while doing his best to make sure he stays out of the way of Connor and whomever the other woman is' counterattck, pulling out his phone he hits the panic button before picking up a trashcan and throwing it at Envy to distract her attention to hopefully distract her enough so she might not defend on time.
The spears pierce into a dumpster a short ways behind the two targets. Envy stomps the ground as the gun is pointed in her direction. After a loud cracking noise a wall of crystal erupts from the ground directly in front of the woman, her nail-spears breaking off as the wall rises beneath them. The steel sphere smacks into the wall with a melodic noise, but the wall is not even scratched by the impact. The force blast also appears to be blocked by this wall, but it continues down the alley on either side of the barrier. Envy pulls a long black gun out of her coat and peaks out around her wall, completely not even noticing the trash can coming down on her from above. "By-by, BitAAA!" The trash can sailed above the crystal wall and fell directly on top of Envy, causing her to fall to the ground. "Goddamn it!" She fires her SMG from a prone position, still partially concealed by the wall. She is aiming primarily for Mikhail it seems. Envy does not
Making no comment at this point, Connor charges the wall, and then swaps the recharging weapon for a foot-long cylinder that he flicks out into a telescoping fighting staff. Using that for leverage, he makes to leap over the short crystal wall, and then kicks off the side of the wall in the alley for a little more altitude. Someone's been putting in some hours in the Danger Room. A -lot- of them. And so he makes to swing down towards the garbage can to 'Ring the Bell'.
While Connor makes the direct approach, Donna seems to prefer a more circuitous route; hurling herself toward the wall of the alley, the sorceress whips her other weapon upwards, wrapping the end around a fire escape and using the leverage to haul herself further up, bringing Envy well into line of sight. WAFFENLICHT! she cries, comet-flail exploding into a spitting, arcing, lightning-sheathed lance that streaks downwards to the left of Envy's head.
Mikhail's eyes widen at the sight of the gun and he jumps up aiming to grab and climb the fire escape to avoid the bullets Envy is firing in his direction, reaching the edge of the fire escape he jumps off trying to land on Donna and Connor's side, away from the woman with the gun.
Envy rolls onto her back and glares up at Connor as he sails down toward her. An array of crystal spines erupt around the woman, pointing upward while she aims her gun toward the boy and fires. He is now leaping into a needle pit with bullets flying at him. Donna's bolt is blocked by a crystal spire, but rather than doing nothing, as is expected with crystal, the bolt travels through the interconnected pieces of crystal in a wave, causing Envy to jolt her arm to the side as an arc of electricity lances her skin. The gun's aim is offset as a result, causing her to fire wildly into the sky.
Connor turns his staff-strike into a thrust at the last moment, hitting the concrete to one side of Envy, and then uses his leverage to swing off and away, where he plants his feet against the wall. The velocity causes him to bend his knees, and once more he pushes off to land on the ground about six feet away from the lady porcupine. In a bend-knee pose, he spins the staff behind him and then settles it back into a fighting grip, "So… you're Diamond, right? Well… I hate to tell this to you… Diamonds isn't as tough as you think. It's got vulnerabilities… like pressure. It does horribly under pressure. It's also made from carbon. Which is usually dead things. So you're a pile of dead crap pushed together and ready to crack under the wrong hit. I can get behind this." In his uniform the weapon beeps, signalling it's ready to loose another concussion wave.
"Funny thing, too," Donna calls, voice high and mocking, from her place under the fire escape. "Diamonds don't conduct electricity… But this is *magic,* you desiccated bag of shits," she says, voice dropping into a snarl as her free hand bursts into actinic light, searing-white runes revolving around her closed fist, "and crystals just *ache* to conduct magic… BLITZSCHLAG!! And she thrusts her hand forward, a hellishly bright bolt of true lightning streaking toward the forest of crystal spines.
Is this really the same Connor who was Robyn's roomate at school? The badassness aside Mik isn't gonna be getting anywhere near Envy with all those spikes surrounding her, looking up at the fire escape he just jumped off he gets an idea. Running, jumping and pulling himself onto the fire escape again, positioning himself above where Envy is fighting from he begins tugging at on of the bars on the fire escape to try and pull it loose.
"YOU'RE made of carbon, you idiot. And yes. Pressure. A hundred fifty fucking tons of pressure." Her attention is drawn to Donna again, causing the woman to spring to her feet and jump back toward Connor. The forest of crystal spines and the wall shatter suddenly into a stunning array of dust as Envy herself takes on a radiant crystal sheen. Magic? Since when does that matter? The woman reaches out to grab Connor as the lightning strikes, causing the woman to cry out as she is blasted a hundred feet down the alley to slam into the ground with a heavy clanking noise.
Connor blinks as the strike is aborted, but the lenses he has on block that from being properly seen. Tilting his head to watch her fly away and then his eyes go up towards Mik's movements. Tapping something on the side of the vision augments, he swaps to a nightsight, and catches the face of the other young man, to which he gives a wave. Oddly, he retracts the staff, but keeps it in hand, and then draws the pistol once more, "You know… I honestly think I'm going to hang back for the rest of this. Just let me know when you want to take a breather, Ma'am. I think it's appropriate that I learn about curbstomping from an expert like yourself."
Donna touches a finger to the brim of her beret, nodding her head in thanks. "How gracious of you," she says, dropping to the ground and recalling her weapons to the nothingness from whence they came. "*Now,* you begin to see," the slight woman says, hands sparking and spitting and crackling as she slowly advances on the prone supervillain. "Now then," she says conversationally. "Let's review; you, my dear, are a jumped-up thug, with little sense and *less* class. You see yourself above everyone and everything. You are *wrong.* *I* am the Stormwaltzer, heir of the Jager der Dunkelheit, sworn enemy of the dark things that wait across the shadow divide. I am the warden of the Iron-Bound Tome of Shuma-Gorath, I am a born and bred Irish *bitch*, and *YOU ARE NOT HARD ENOUGH.*" Raising her hands, Sith-like, she sprays out a fan of electrical arcs… and holds them on Envy, hair blowing back to reveal a blank crimson eye, like a sphere of blood set within her socket.
Mikhail pulls the bar loose but before he can complete his plan Donna starts hers and Mik can only really watch slightly slackjawed, "Whoa". Connor's wave is slowly returned as he watches the continued attack.
The diamond woman begins to move on the ground as Donna approaches, crawling to a crouching position before standing up. "Oh I think I've had about enough of you…" A large ruby throwing star appears in Envy's hand, but she is stunned back for a moment by an electrical shock that runs up her seemingly from no where. She prepares to attack again when the Stormwaltzer's electric spray hits her, causing the woman to cry out again. Envy seems unable to move, her crystal form gradually becoming brighter until it shines as though filled with sunlight. The ground around Envy rumbles as claw-like crystal spires begin climbing up from the ground. She appears entirely unable to move as the energy builds up inside of her.
Connor purses his lips a bit as he watches, and then tilts his head to one side, "Whoa." Is about right in this scenario. As the energy seems to build up and the claw like spires start to pop out of the ground helter skelter, he begins moving backwards as he checks the concussion weapon once more, and the motions for Mik and towards one of the side-nooks where a door is, "You… ahh… might want to get to cover."
A practiced eye flicks over the spires, judging the buildup of energy, as she continues to hold the taser-strength lightning on her foe. Once the buildup reaches a point that seems to satisfy her, she nods to herself, dropping one hand and plucking her weapon out of the ether again. "Now," she says, whipping the flail on a slow, lazy circle, faster and faster as momentum builds, and finally she rears back, hurling the sphere forward to ricochet through the twisting, jagged forest of crystal toward its center. "FUCK OFF, YOU!" Just before it reaches its target, the lightning is whipped away, the better for Eris to see her defeat coming.
Mikhail manages to take his eyes of the attack long enough to nod at Connor and do as he's told, jumping off the fire escape he ducks inside the doorway, peering round to see the climax of the attack.
Envy stops screaming slightly before the lightning attack is stopped. The woman shines with the radiance of a sun, turning her head upward and seeming to levitate off the ground for a moment before the energy is suddenly released. The electrical energy bursts out of the woman toward the spires, where it changes direction and is released into the sky as a massive bolt of white lightning. The sphere strikes Envy midway through the release of energy, knocking the woman out of the crystal array and causing her to slam into the wall at the far end of the alley and doing a bit of damage to the brickwork. Envy falls to the ground with a clank before reverting to her non-diamond form. The woman appears to be unconscious, her coat is smoking and tinged with the glow of embers.
Taking a look back around the corner as well, Connor tilts his head to one side as he rolls it back towards Mikhail, "You know… good of you to be here, but next time be more careful." And coming back around, he goes across to a payphone just outside of the alleyway, and puts in 911. Then instead of saying anything, he leaves it off the hook and walks back to the other two, "So… can we assume that she hasn't learned her lesson? I called the police. Someone will be by responding to an unanswered payphone. But first." And going to the wall he takes out a piece of chalk and writes out the words, 'I WILL NOT ATTACK SCHOOLCHILDREN.'
"Had I the time and patience," Donna mutters, carefully arranging her hair to cover her blank red eye, "I'd tattoo that onto her face. Backwards." With a shrug, she puts the comet-flail back into its pocket of nothingness, straightening her hair, and bestowing a sunny smile on Mikhail and Connor. "There! I feel better. I do hope you learned something, then?"
"Be more careful? Connor I'm still with Xaviers, you know that doesn't help", Mikhail steps back a little as Donna approaches after taking out Envy, something makes him wanna keep a respectable distance. "So much for chilling in the city today, what did she do?"
Eris is not moving currently. The crystal spires make faint cracking noises as fissures appear inside of them. They begin slowly desintigrating into dust.
Connor turns and begins walking away form the scene of the crime, "Two important things… she apparently absorbs energy to a degree, which is good to know just in case… and you're not someone I want to cross lightly." Motioning for Mikhail to come along, he makes his way quickly to the end of the alley and towards his bike.
Donna inclines her head, smile widening. "*Very* good, lad… you're a quick study." Tipping her beret to Mikhail, she turns her back on Envy's unconscious form, walking the walk of the incredibly self-satisfied as she exits the alleyway, leaving Envy to her little nap.
