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Summary: Heather and Tabitha show up to deliver a frontal assault to the school. Emma, Ashley, Cloud and David defend their home.
Date: July 3, 2011.
Log Title: Illusory Assault
Rating: PG-13.
Xavier Mansion - Courtyard
Surrounded on three sides by the school, a large courtyard forms the front yard. The courtyard leads right up to the door of the mansion. Yellow square stone slabs cover the ground where the grass would be. The most noticeable thing about the courtyard is the large statue of Jean Gray, aka Phoenix, in the middle as a memorial. Benches surround the outside of the statue so students can sit and hang out in the courtyard. There are two paths leading off the courtyard, one to the left and the other to the right.
This log occurs at the same time as Cerebra Assassination.
It's a bright and sunny day, though with the evening comes the cooling of air. There's not much except for the songs of birds to keep things from being too quiet- Wait. Heather arrives at a running pace in the front lawn of the Xavier's campus, climbing the wall and trailing a sonic boom behind her, which catches up once she's stopped. Her eyes are covered in dark goggles, and her face holds an emotionless expression. Her outline blurs slightly as she proceeds forward.
TABITHA SEES: Tonight's the night. Marvin Brady's lair will receive a frontal assault. Tabitha has been advised that Timeslip will be proceeding first in order to check things out, and has sent the mimic a radio message detailing location and telling her to gather attention, and most importantly, to keep Brady distracted while they manage to break Shane out.
Ashley is on his way from the dorms to the mansion. For a Danger Room session? A snack? Hiding from people? Any of these may be the answer, but either way, that puts Ash right on the front steps of the mansion as the sonic boom echoes over the grounds. And he does what most teens would do when hearing a sonic boom; he peers up towards the sky to see if he can see the aircraft that made it. His ignorance of mutant powers leaving him clueless that the sonic boom was woman-made.
Having finished making the call to the number Emma had given him Cloud is heading back across the courtyard to see how his sister is doing keeping an eye on the kid, he's dressed in his squad uniform, black boots, black jean-like pants and a black t-shirt white the compulsory green X on the chest, hopefully he can convince a teacher to run a quick DR session in a while, partly to get some more practice in and partly cos it might entertain the kid for a while, he stops when he hears the sonic boom looking round like Ashley to find the source, spotting Heather he starts walking towards her, "Hey Heather, you ok?"
Speaking with a former student via cybershades, David continues, "… Look I'm sorry. But this is just how it is…" *Sonic Boom outside* "Ok gotta go." David ends the call with the person on the opposite end of the line cursing in Japanese. David multitasking using the shades to coordinate the source of the attack while reaching for his trench coat to complete his uniform. He rushes out of his room and towards the entrance, "Heather?" He says to himself as he moves past the elevator and towards the staircase."
Somewhere out on the roads in Westchester, there's a truck driving around; not a pickup truck or a cube vab, but a fuel tanker truck, that's been making the rounds servicing gas stations in the area. The usual driver seems to have been left behind at the last gas station, where he would be calling the police, if he weren't in the men's room, busy recovering from having been knocked unconscious. Instead, the truck is driven by one rat girl, who calls herself Patches, with a radio headset plugged into one ear. And then, there comes Heather's message crackles through. The rat girl kicks the truck up to a higher gear, and puts her foot down on the gas as she rounds a corner. "Okay Marvin," she mutters to herself. "Here I come."
The bright yellow truck gathers speed as it flies down the road, and flies around a corner to get up onto the drive leading to the Xavier mansion. The truck roars as it continues to accelerate, and the rat girl's foot is still firmly planted to the pedal as the truck barrels through the main gate. Two tires rupture, and the vehicle skids sideways to a halt. Then, abruptly, the entire truck explodes, shattering the peaceful afternoon. From out of the ensuing fireball, the rat girl emerges, wreathed in a forcefield visible where it holds back flames and raining chunks of metal, as she walks slowly towards the entrance to the mansion.
The two students and David all hear in their minds at once All of you… beware… they are under the influence of Mindbender., and the front doors of the mansion open, revealing Emma, minus her sport coat. Looking much more like her heyday of supervilliany, the Headmistress of Xaviers steps forwards with one hand outstretched, and immediately attempts to probe the minds of both the X-student and the young woman from Barnes. Keeping her mental link with the others, Stay close by… I may be able to shield you from their influences.
Heather doesn't react to the explosion either, nor does she look back at it. She glances over slightly towards the approaching Tabitha, and then shakes her head making a high pitched squeak. At Emma Frost appearing, she seems to brace herself slightly and plays on her tape recorder, eyes shifting to everyone present. "Prepare yourself." Her mind has become highly difficult to read, if only by the nature of her mutant power stretching mental seconds to mental minutes of already rapid, disorganized thoughts. Still, it would seem that her perception of reality is highly warped, a similar result would show from Tabitha.
TABITHA SEES: Upon exiting the explosion, Tabitha would find Marvin Brady stepping calmly out of the hideout, with a few minions, mutant monster creatures, standing by his side. He stays in his position without moving and offers Tabitha a slow clap.
Ash glances at David as he strides out of the mansion, following the other man's attention to Cloud and Heather. Cloud is recognized, but Heather is not, leaving Ashley to grouse to himself about more new people. He may have missed that Heather was the source of the sonic boom, but the tanker truck careening through the front gates is pretty hard to miss. The tanker goes up in a fireball big enough to draw a "Oh sh-" from Ash before the youth is lifting an arm up on instinct to shade from the blinding glare of the explosion, done so while he goes into a crouch.
Out comes Emma, striding into the chaos, and Ash peers up over his arm, thoroughly confused, "Mindbender?" he asks, peering towards that big sphere rising up from the explosion. "Who?" he asks, glancing towards David. He's clued in, maybe he'll share with Ash.
Cloud's attention is quickly switched from Heather to the explosion, "Holy shi…", probably the thing that freaks him out more is the giant rat walking away from the explosion, he really doesn't like rats, something about the tails and beady eyes freak him out, as he gets Emma's warning he quickly backs away from Heather, "Man i knew it has been too quiet round here", he thinks to Emma, 'Any instructions?'
Having received the communiqué from Emma, David makes his way down the stairs and onto the first floor lobby. Still within the building, David pulls up any information he can find on Mindbender through his shades. When he reaches the entrance, he remains there a moment as the various skills of those present enter his mind as he mentally catalogues them and hopefully prepares whatever comes their way. Finally stepping outside but not moving to confront anyone, though the sonic booms and explosion can only mean bad news. Responding to Ashley, "Mindbender can mess with our heads. Heather moves really fast, but despite how it seems is our friend." He gulps a bit as he hopes she still is. Heeding Emma's warning, David remains a safe distance from Heather and Tabitha but instinctively remains somewhat in front of Ashley.
Patches continues to stride forwards, slow and calm, as she studies the arch-villain and the mutant minions he's brought; at least to her perception. "Clap all you want," she intones. "Go on, clap. Maybe you'll still be clapping when I'm through with you, or maybe your arms will be broken. I haven't decided yet." The rat girl stretches her arms out behind herself, and gestures forwards; the fire from the destroyed truck flares and spreads, leaping up and over the wall around the grounds, and across the garden to lick at the mansion itself. "Who did you hurt to make those sorry creatures?" She nods towards the X-Students. "And where's Rashmi? If you've hurt her, I won't just beat you senseless. I'll break you in half." She eventually comes to a halt, perhaps thirty feet away from the steps. She shifts her feet, and sets herself in a recognizable kung fu stance, with her hands in front of her and ready. "Whenever you're ready to stop clapping, come on down here so I can kick your ass."
Emma Frost actually seem… impatient. Impatient and annoyed. When Tabitha's declaration is made, she motions with one hand, and says both physically and mentally, "Mister Rosen… Mister Alleyne… do what you can to contain her. Miss Brown… is mine." And walking with all casual care of a lioness on the edge of a savannah watering hole, she moves around the group and towards where Heather is, locking onto that slippery mind as best she can, and then with an arched brow, "Miss Brown… please do not misunderstand me on this… but if you make a move… you will quickly learn how nice I have been. To all of you."
"Nice?! Nice?! If that's nice, dad, let me show you how /nice/ I can be!" plays Heather on her tape recorder, teeth clenching tightly and hands balling up into fists. Indeed, she makes a move, crouching and then dashing in order to attempt to tackle Emma Frost directly. She moves from a stop to sonic speed without much delay, but enough that Emma has advanced warning.
TABITHA SEES: “Heh, I don't think that I need to sully myself with the likes of you," says Marvin, walking aside, and clicking his fingers to order his minions to advance, as he approaches the just fading in Timeslip. "I have some loose ends to take care of, myself."
Explosions give Ash a bit of a shock, but fire he can deal with. Straightening even as David moves to defend him, he peers around the other man towards Patches, "Hey, she sounds familiar…" he mutters, "…even if she sounds crazy, what's she going on about?" But then she's directing the fires towards the mansion, and Ash gets into territory he thinks he can handle.
Without waiting for orders or instructions, Ash focuses his attention on the flames moving towards the sides of the mansion. The firebug pushes against them, and whatever control Tabitha/Patches might still be exerting on them, intent on driving the flames back towards the destroyed truck, and away from the school and its students.
Cloud gulps, great he gets to deal with the giant rat, last time that happened he was dreaming and the rat had shown up during a history test which he didn't know any answers for, ok really not the time to be thinking about that. He places a hand on one of the yellow stone slabs at his feet and absorbs, his hair, clothes and skin taking on the properties of the stone, trying not to think about exactly what he's fighting he runs forward to do battle with rat-girl.
Nodding his head at Emma's instruction, David moves forward. As Emma approaches Heather, he almost feels sorry for Heather, but onto his target. As Ashley moves to contend with the fire, David moves closer towards Tabitha, he takes on a similar fighting stance surprisingly matching Tabitha's stance. "Rush, so far I can tell she is controlling the fire and has a TK field around her. Don't just rush at her. Not sure if you can absorb telekinetic energy or heat, but you may find out today." David does not rush her, but waits to sense what Tabitha will do first.
A perfectly culture brow arches as Heather makes for the superspeed charge… but the speed of the mind is as fast, if not faster than the same. The moment that Heather begins moving, Emma Frost sidesteps, pivots, and thrusts her foot out to catch the girl right in the face with the heel of her shoe, bouncing it off on impact. For what Emma is a bounce, for the young Miss Brown is a hard impact right to a sensitive part of the body, placed to be non-lethal, but also to cause a maximum amount of pain. And all Emma says to this is, "Suit yourself."
Heather stumbles backwards and clutches her face, and her tape recorder plays, "You bastard!" She clutches it between her fists and says, "I underestimated your reactions. It is not a mistake I will make agai-" She apparently has no idea how long her messages run for, but all at once, without any time actually passing, and the blurred images simply suddenly appearing. Heather stops time, and appears to attempt to deliver a non-lethal, but likely extremely painful slap, only breaking the timestop a moment before the impact of her hands.
TABITHA SEES: Marvin Brady and Timeslip seem to exchange blows, with Marvin Brady currently at the advantage as he delivers an axe kick to Heather's face. "I should have done this awhile ago." He raises his hands to try and blast her, but she seems to stop that moment and prepare a counterattack. In the meantime, one of the mutated monsters seems to be protecting the hideout, while another one rushes, and yet another seems to await her rush towards either Marvin or towards the building.
The rat girl snorts loudly. "Sully yourself? *I* am the one getting sullied here, you wretch, for having to deal with you!" She holds out her hand, and from the wreckage of the fuel tanker, a long, glowing hot piece of metal comes flying out, and directly into her palm. The white-hot pry bar hisses as she spins it around her fingers, though it seems not to burn her. "Let's fight fire with fire, shall we?" She walks forwards, watching Cloud rush towards her, and then glancing at Emma for a prolonged moment. "Oh… so you're a telepath, Marvin. I didn't know that." And then Cloud is upon her. She drops down and rolls to one side, coming straight back up to stand over to the side.
And then, she unleashes pure psychic hell; raw, untrained, and directed straight at the front door of the mansion and the two people standing there; the one giving instructions, and the one quelling her flames.
As David and Metal Boy (or so Ash calls Cloud in the back of his head) move to confront Tabitha directly, Ash continues to focus what little control he has against the flames licking at the sides of the mansion. Then again, as she gets closer, it clicks, 'Hey, that is the crazy chick from the bank…' flashes through his mind, and he calls out to Cloud and David, "Hey, be careful! I think she steals powers, she's prolly usin' mine!" he says, giving a metaphysical shove to send the flmaes away from the mansion, and off onto the lawn. The lawn will grow back, after all.
Then the rat girl unleashes that pure psychic hell on a pyro who has pretty much no mental resistance what-so-ever, either inbound or outbound. The scream affecting him almost like a physical blow, sending him sprawling on his backside, arms crossed in front of his face, mouth open in a silent scream of his own.
Cloud calls back to David, "I can do heat but telekinetic energy I'm not sure even how to try", not realizing what Tabitha is doing to David and Ashley Cloud quickly turns and attempts to deliver a stone kick to the rat-girl's side, David said she was protected by a TK shield but if she's bothering to dodge that may not quite be the case.
Grabbing his ears at the onslaught of psychic hell that has been unleashed upon him, David stifles. While the attack is psychic in nature, it still feels very real. Having been overwhelmed quite a few times, David musters up strength and training from the Institute to try to fight it and move past the 'noise.' David mentally and physically yells loudly, "If you want Rashmi, this has to stop!" David hopes feeding into the delusion won't hurt him too much and hopefully give a respite from the mental assault and Cloud to connect.
That superspeed slap connects, but Emma rolls with it, spinning a couple times and landing on the ground. As she pushes herself up, there's some blood on her nose, and she takes a moment to wipe it away, staring at it on her glove for the moment. Flicking her eyes back up at the two girls, it's almost a casual thing how she waves her hand to shield and dispel the psi-assault on the pair. With the mental attack blocked off, she comments, "Remember what I said about no longer being nice? Hello girls. My name is Emma Frost. But you can call me… the White Queen." And suddenly both Heather and Tabitha are hit with the equivalent of a neural shotgun blast, firing off bursts of random synapses in each girl to debilitate and stop them.
Heather's eyes widen, and she falls to the ground, her mind being extra sensitive to psychic attacks. She clutches her head and curls up into the fetal position, making seemingly random squeaking noises.
However, while Emma is busy with attacking Heather and Tabitha, a new contender appears, coming from hiding and silently approaching Emma Frost from behind to stick a knife into her back. She waits until it's first planted and says, "Hello, White Queen, call me Upgrade. Do not lay a psychic finger on my child… In fact, you should probably take a long nap."
TABITHA SEES: The psychic attack from Emma might be quite painful, and Timeslip seems to go down without much of a fuss, and Marvin approaches with his mutating touch, but out from behind a piece of rubble, Cheryl appears, putting a knife into the man's back.
Patches is caught by Cloud's kick, and sent sprawling across the ground. She loses her hold on the prey bar, but quickly snatches it up again; she stands and hurls the glowing piece of metal towards Cloud. She follows the attack with a concentrated, telekinetic push, hard enough to send a car flying through the air. Then Emma's assault hits, and she drops down to her knees, clutching her hands to her head and peeling her lips back in a loud, desperate squeal of agony. She pants heavily, and forces her teeth to clench together. "Get… out… my… MIND!" She shouts, and the last couple of words reverberate in all directions as a psychic projection, just at the moment when Upgrade stabs Emma in the back. The rat girl remains kneeling, and shakes her head, still clutching at her temples. "Cheryl?" she whispers, looking up and wincing as she moves. "Careful… behind you. Marvin's… things."
As Emma blocks off the psychic-screaming-right-in-his-face, Ash twists to his side, grunting as he pushes himself back to his knees. "..friends, huh…" he mutters, lifting his head to take a look at the situation. Cloud and David seem to be tangling with Tabitha, and the Mansion isn't in immediate danger of bursting into flames; at least no more than usual with a handful of pyro's living on the grounds.
Then this pyro notices someone creeping up behind the Headmistress, and amped up as he is on the combat high, he acts rather than waiting to see if that's a friend going to help Emma out with the speedster. Too slow on the shout to catch Upgrade before she plants that blade, none the less Ash is shouting out "Miss Frost!" as his right arm swings, a fireball bursting to life in his clutches and then flung like a sidearm pitch towards first base; with Upgrade's back filling in for the first baseman's mitt.
Cloud grins when his attack makes contact which makes him cocky, in stone form he attempts to catch the bar thrown at him not realising Tabitha had put a telekinetic push behind it, enough of a push to break though his stone skin impailing him in the side but thankfully avoiding the vital organs, falling to his knees he reaches out instintivly to grab Tabitha and absorb.
Having staved off the attack courtesy of Emma, David is quick on his feet, "Emma, watch out!" He sends mentally and loudly he screams though Ashley is quick to act on behalf of Emma. as he rushes towards the momentarily distracted Tabitha. He moves forward and attempts a the Wing Chun chain punching, rushing forward with his full body weight throwing it towards Tabitha, with the fist as the "nail", and his full body weight as the "hammer". Attempting a series of the successive punches, David attempts to move forward, "Rashmi is safe and not here. No need for this fight."
Emma stiffens when the blade sinks in, and the mental attack on the girls tapers to nothing. Her teeth grit into a rather unladylike snarl as she reaches back to try and grab the knife, but then falls forwards on her knees. Overriding her own shock with every bit of her own mental power, she turns her head to look at Upgrade, and says in a roughened, but no less elegant tone, "Oh good… you came. What makes you think… I would let this go… so easily?" Somehow, the knife comes free from her back with a slow pull, a sizzling following afterwards as she cauterizes her own wound. Working completely off will, she twists and throws as she falls back, and the knife goes true, metal heated to where it will sear the flesh as it strikes going into Upgrade's shoulder joint, burning into that critical ligament and destroying the cartilage.
With a smirk and a grin she then holds up a cellphone and presses a button, and all over the school alarms begin to sound, and a thick steel plate locks down over the front door, and a calm voice says 'Campus lockdown procedures and defense protocols enabled.' But that is all she can do… and Emma Frost slumps into unconsciousness…
Heather crawls to her feet, and rubs her forehead lightly once the mental attack tapers off, and she shakes her head a few times to try and recover, but she's clearly a little bit disoriented. "No, I'm here again. Oh no…" She rubs her face once again.
Upgrade shrieks and stumbles backwards as the knife flies into her shoulder, and she tears out the heated blade, but not before the damage is done. There are tears in her eyes, but as Ashley's fireball hits her in the back, she seems not to react to it in the slightest, like it just slide off her, and just turns around. "Run away right now, or I swear I'll break your neck."
TABITHA SEES: Marvin seems to fall to the ground, but not before stabbing Cheryl rather grievously. "You will never stop me, I swear it… I will perfect this world, you just watch. You… just… watch." He falls down, in unconsciousness. Timeslip stands up and looks towards Tabitha, "Do you have his powers? We'll have to retreat this time… It is not in our temporal reality for a final victory here at this moment."
Tabitha rises back to her feet, unsteady at first but regaining her strength, just in time to have Cloud and David both coming at her at the same time. Cloud manages to grab hold of her leg, as at the same time she's forced to fend off a series of blows from David. Her motions are swift, and she fends off his fists with her forearms and the forcefields protecting them; one punch does make it through, only to impact another forcefield. "Nice try, you—" Her voice cuts off with a loud 'hrrk' sound, and her eyes pop wide as she feels Cloud draining her lifeforce, just from that tenuous contact. She swallows, going weak-kneed; and then she straightens, and Cloud would feel the effect in turn, applied straight back upon him. "Enough," she snarls. "And bugger off!" She extends her palm towards David, and lets fly with a TK blast, aimed straight at his chest; and then she focuses on Cloud, and on lifting him into the air using her borrowed powers, and hurling him at the reinforced mansion doors. "Get Cheryl out!" she shouts back to Heather. "I'll follow!"
The gates slam down over the front door as Ashley rights himself, up to his feet, hands forming fists at his sides. Between the screaming, the alarms, and the flames, Ash is starting to check out. But not in the blissful ignorance of unconsciousness checking out. No, he's dropping into the painful waters of memory. Violence striking too close to home. "I don't know who the hell you are, lady…" he mutters as he eyes Upgrade shrugging off the fireball. "But I don't run."
And then Ash is thrusting his hands out, jets of flame roaring to life from his palms. The sleeves of his hoodie bursting into flames in short order, tongues of the stuff running up from his wrists as he just turns the flamethowers on Upgrade. Aiming high, trying to keep the stream of flames above the unconscious Emma. The Ghostbusters always said that crossing the streams is bad, but that's exactly what Ash does, trying to catch Upgrade's head right in the middle.
Cloud grins as he's able to grab hold of Tabitha and his appearance changes to his usual look when absorbing life-force, the grins doesn't last long as his own powers are turned against him and he is telekineticly thrown against the reinforced doors, he remains conscious but having difficulty moving.
Striking her field as hard as he can and hoping to connect as Cloud does his drain. One get through and then hits another field and then whomph, David is tossed across the lawn towards the entrance of the school by the telekinetic blast. He holds his stomach and grasps for air as he has literally had the air knocked out of him.
Upgrade just keeps walking towards Ashley, not particularly concerned about the fire being shot at her, though it burns up everything she has on her except for the main parts of her supervillain costume. "Then that's your- OOOF!"
Heather zips around and tackles the injured supervillainess, picking her up and throwing her over her shoulder while zipping off. While Upgrade might have had one plan, Heather has had another. She accelerates relatively slowly, but eventually gets to very high speeds as she runs off through the gate.
Timeslip and Cheryl are both gone; and for Patches, it's time to go. "Don't follow," she warns, taking a step back. Her muscles complain, after the attack from Cloud; and her mind complains, after the attack from Emma. But she moves nonetheless. She gestures, and a blast of flame shoots out of her hand, forming a wall of fire in front of her, before she turns to walk back towards the gate, where the fuel tanker still burns.
From a corner of the mansion rooftop, one of the automated defense systems deploys; Upgrade is already gone, leaving only one target that it doesn't recognize. One rat girl. The minigun swings around and opens fire, unleashing a torrent of subsonic rubber bullets at Patches, enough that they swiftly overwhelm what remaining strength she has in her forcefield, and then they impact directly on her body. She shrieks, and goes down on one her knees, and then flat on her stomach, and still the bullets come. She clutches a nearby cobblestone, and her body changes composition to match, giving her a chance to struggle back to her feet; or at least to her knees.
With Tabitha and Heather gone, he mentally sighs in relief. Getting to his feet slowly, but still having a hard time breathing, David, through the use of his cybershades, alerts the medbay to prepare for Ms. Frost. Making his way towards the headmistress, he picks her up. "Ashley, head to your room. The school is on lockdown. Cloud, once you get bearings, check around to make sure no one who should not be here isn't here." Lifting up Emma, he carries her into the Mansion and straight for the medbay. When things have calmed down, David will be sure to thank both Ashley and Cloud for defending the school.
That slow, inevitable tread towards Ash does concern him a little. 'How come everyone else gets to be fireproof, too?' flashes through his mind, but that doesn't make him let up on the flamethrowin'. If anything, he only cranks up the heat, the flames turning into bars of pure white as they close in on his upper limits of three thousand degrees. Whether or not this actually affects Upgrade is soon a moot point, as Heather charges in to sweep the supervillainess up over her shoulder and make a break for the front gates.
The bars of white hot continue on, now that Upgrade no longer blocks their path, scoring across the back of Jean Grey's statuesque legs before Ash drops his hands and drops the flames. But the adreneline is coursing through his system, and he's already starting after Tabitha, charging down the steps. His hand shoots out, trying to part Tabitha's wall of flame like the Red Sea, before David's called instruction reaches his ears. The teen visibly struggles between letting bad people get away, and following orders, stopping at the line of flames, ignoring them leaping out and charring his hoodie even further. "But they're getting away!" he calls back at David, even as the minigun thumps out its rounds at the ratgirl.
Cloud struggles to his feet wincing as he pulls the bar out of his side, he knew there was a reason he was scared of rats, he gives David a nod and will do his best to check out the area to make sure no one is there, "Let them go Ash, we gotta make sure no one else was hurt", he'll then head down to the medbay himself.
Patches slowly gets back to her feet, clenching her teeth in a grimace. She extends her will through her telekinesis, to pluck a chunk of the tanker and interpose it between herself and the minigun; bullets continue to fire, plinking off the charred metal instead of her. She curses under her breath as she strides forwards, ignoring Ashley's efforts to destroy her wall of flame as she disappears into the inferno consuming the main gate. She picks her way across the wreckage, and then she is gone; rocketing upwards into the sky, borne aloft by borrowed powers.
