2012-05-09: Lend Me Your Hand

Players: Cale, Eris, Mason, and Nicholas

Cale_icon.jpg Eris_icon.jpg Mason_icon.jpg Nicholas_icon.jpg

Summary: Mistaking Mason for someone she was hired to “send a message to”, Eris decides that she would like to cut off his hand.

Log Title: Lend Me Your Hand

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.


Scene

After getting some shopping done at the mall, Nick is now standing on the sidewalk looking through his phone trying to figure out how to get back to the school. Having no direction sense he's trying to get the GPS function to work. He has two Target bags on one arm and a frustrated look on his face. After a while he looks around to find someone to ask what street their on so he can figure out where the heck he is.

Nicholas is in luck! It just so happens that Mason was at the mall, though not in a context that Nicholas would be likely to want to engage him. He was doing a signing for one of his albums for the town of Westchester. He is walking away from the mall himself, glancing over his shoulder to see if he's been spotted by any of his fangirls. A black Corvette ball cap is on his head, dark sunglasses on his face, and an uncharacteristic low grade, brown button down shirt over his Abercrombie style. He shoves his hands in his pockets, heading through the parking lot. He spots Nick from the side as he reaches the sidewalk, and begins walking in his direction. It takes him a moment, but slowly he recognizes the angsty teen. "Yo Nick, what's up?" he asks, another glance shot in the direction of the mall to assure himself that he hasn't been followed.

Walking across the parking lot from a small strip mall offset from the mall itself is a woman dressed all in black. Eris is currently enthralled by something on her phone as she types away, not really paying attention to exactly where she is going. The woman glances up as she nearly runs over the two boys, huffing and turning slightly to avoid the two. She stops a short ways away to do something with her phone. If either of the boys happens to look down, they may notice that the woman is creating a small trail of what appears to be blood.

Nicholas jumps at hearing his name and glares in the direction of Mason. "Who the hell are you?" He asks. Since he's only met Mason once and not recognizing him with the hat and shades he's quite on the defensive. As Eris approaches Nick steps out of the way so she can pass and notices the trail. He stairs at it for a bit before muttering, "Is that blood?" and looks up at Eris. "Excuse me, ma'am, are you okay?"

Mason drops his shades for a moment, letting Nicholas see his face. "It's Mason, don't freak, man. I'm in disguise so I don't get jumped by groupies while leaving the mall. I'll let them jump me later." He gives a wink. Yes, that was innuendo. He shifts out of Eris' way, but doesn't pay her much heed, nor does he seem to understand that there is a red trail flowing from her until Nicholas says something. "Blood? Where? What're you talking about? Leave her alone, she's probably in some hurry or something," he says to Nick.

Eris looks very annoyed at something that is displayed on her phone. She waves a hand dismissively at the boys when Nick speaks to her, a small bag at her side flapping about aimlessly. She stops suddenly and looks down. She is trailing blood. Te woman looks herself over quickly before realizing that it is dripping out of that bag. She wraps it around itself and clears her throat. "Um, I'm fine. I just…Had a nosebleed. All better now." She gives the two boys a sidelong glance. "Shouldn't you be in school or something?"

Nicholas looks at Mason and raises his eyebrows at him. "Well at least I know you're typical celebrity, using their fame to get laid." He's not impressed or amused by that. At Eris' explanation of a nosebleed, Nick finds that not exactly believable. "If you're hurt or something, I can call an ambulance if you want?" He ignores the school quip but the bag is eyed with a suspicious fear.

"Pfft, I don't need to be famous to get laid," Mason answers. "I know you're jealous, don't worry, I can help you get some. Maybe that's why you are always down. Is that it?" Mason watches as Eris tucks the bag away. "Nah, I'm off right now. That's some nosebleed to have blood trailing out of your bag," he comments with a chuckle. He clearly isn't taking the conversation too seriously, not imagining that something foul could be afoot.

Eris shakes her head, "Oh no…Why would you call an ambulance for a nosebleed, you idiot?" She does not sound terribly friendly at the moment, almost as though she does not want to interact with these children any longer. But then it seems as though she just realizes what they are saying to each other. "Famous? Celebrity?" She narrows her eyes and clicks a few things on her phone again. "I didn't get the wrong one, did I…" She seems to be comparing a photo on her phone to Mason.

Nicholas glares at Mason and clenches his fists and gives him a look like he wants to punch him right in the face. "Next time you want to open your mouth, don't because I'm about to punch you in it." He says to the other teen before looking at Eris. "If you don't need an ambulance then just get the hell out of here and bleed around someone else. I'm not in the mood for this crap tonight." Sure he wants to punch Mason right now but he's not about to let some woman do anything to him.

Mason rolls his eyes. "No good deed goes unpunished," he mutters. "Geez you sure are a weird one," the pop star responds to Nicholas. "First you're asking if she's okay, then telling her to get the hell out of your face. Lady, I'm really sorry, my friend doesn't really have much in the way of social skills. And no, I was just saying that I don't need to be famous," he corrects Eris, eyes still hidden by the sunglasses, though he casts a glance to Nicholas behind them. He tucks his ball cap down a little farther as she examines her phone.

Eris narrows her eyes at the phone and glances between the two images. "God, this is such a pain. Take off that hat and glasses so I can get a propper look at you." She shuffles the bag a little as she scrolls through a few things on the phone. The woman ignores Nick at first, but after a few moments decides he might be in the way. "Well it doesn't matter. I'll just take yours too. Then I can just turn them both in and one of you is bound to be that…Violinist or whatever the hell you are." Eris raises a hand toward Nicholas, pointing four fingers at the boy, "You, however, are useless to me." The woman's nails suddenly extend at rapid speed, taking on a crystaline appearance as they rush toward Nicholas.

Nicholas is to busy looking at Mason. "You idi-" But he stops talking as he hears her call him useless. As he turns towards her he realizes he doesn't have enough time to move out of the way as the crystalline nails pierce him in the chest and Nick looks at her in surprise as his hand moves to his chest. "Shit." He mutters and his eyes glow blue as he shoves his hand forward towards Eris, using his telekinesis to shove her back.

"I don't think you're looking for me," Mason comments, becoming uncomfortable with Eris' demands upon his identity. The severity of the situation still manages not to register until Eris spells it out with her next sentence. Mason isn't necessarily the best fighter, but his reflexes serve him well. Unfortunately, not well enough for Nicholas. As Eris' fingers extend toward Nick, Mason snatches a hand out, grabbing Nicholas by the collar and snatching him back and to the side with greater force than one might expect out of a teen of his stature. Sadly, the nails pierce Nicholas before Mason can pull him out of the way. "Whoa! Lady, gotta trim those! We don't want any trouble, why don't you just get going and do your own thing, and we'll do our thing." It isn't the most profoundly heroic monologue he could have voiced, but it is what came out. He places himself between Nick and the woman, taking a more heroic position than dialogue.

Just as quickly as the nails extended they retract to their normal length, making a very satisfying *shink* noise as they grow and return. Eris smirks and turns her attention to Mason right as Nick's push strikes her. The woman is knocked back suddenly, landing on her back and dropping that bag she was holding. Eris does a quick back summersault to land in a crouching position. "Hmmm. Wasn't expecting fellow mutants. Personal body guard? Ozuka didn't mention that…" The contents of the bag have been partially exposed during the fall. It appears to be an adult human hand.

The front of Nick's shirt is quickly becoming red from the puncture wounds after he's flung back by Mason. "Run you twit." He says to Mason as he grabs his phone and hits the panic button to contact Xavier's. "I'm not anyone's bodyguard, but I'm not about to let you start cutting off his body parts, even if he is a thick headed jerk." His eyes still glow blue as he uses his powers to lift up a nearby garbage can and fling it at Eris, though it doesn't have much more force behind it then if he were throwing it by hand, just his telekinsis allows it to travel the distance.

"What's that?" Mason asks in a more frantic voice. "Is that a hand? Why do you have a hand?" He glances back at Nick. "You okay? You hurt?" The blond teen doesn't keep his attention away for long. He kicks his sandals off his feet. "No way, I'm not gonna leave you alone, don't be dip." He feels his feet on the warm concrete. "Get out of here, lady, we're just a couple of kids from Westchester, We haven't done anything to you!" Still, he hesitates to use his powers, instead he backs up, trying to push Nick back to make a greater distance between them and the crystalline villain.

Eris definitely sees that garbage can coming, giving her enough time to block it effectively. The woman swings one of her arms out to strike the can as it hits her, denting the can heavily and sending it flying. Light glints off of her arm before it returns from it's previously crystaline state. "Well unfortunately for you now I HAVE to kill you. You saw what I took from that other boy. Though I'm still not convinced you aren't the one I was after anyway." She pretends to ponder for a moment. "I took his left. Maybe I'll take your right?" Eris spins suddenly and launches a massive ruby throwing star the size of a ceiling fan toward Mason.

"I'm still awake." Nicholas says as he goes to lean against the nearest object to keep him standing. "She stabbed me in the chest." With all of her nails and he's just doing what he can to stay standing. "You're not going to kill anyone." He says to Eris coughing a bit causing a bit of blood to come up. "Mason..I need help." He says as he tries to use his powers to push the ruby throwing star away from the pop star.

Mason reaches up as the star flies toward him, helping to glance the star to the side as it reaches him The telekinetic shove from Nicholas is helpful. He strikes it, and the star cracks in half, cutting along his arm and tearing through the arm of his shirt. He grips the gash that forms along his arm, and looks back to Nicholas. "Don't worry, I got you man," he says. He considers the option of running with Nicholas. That probably wouldn't end well. "Okay! Psycho lady, I surrender, just leave him alone and I won't hurt you." He holds both hands up in surrender, blood trickling down his left arm. "See, we're all cool here, you can meet some violinist or whatever, and he can go. Everybody is happy, right?"

"No! No everybody is NOT happy!" comes an annoyed shout that sounds and looks like it could have come from a boy or girl, as an angry Cale storms across the parking lot from the entrance to the mall. His hair today is in a thick braid and he's wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a purple zip-up hoody. The teen rushes to Nick's side, "Nick! Nick are you okay? Oh god," he gulps when he sees up close that Nick's pretty badly wounded. WhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdo…

Eris seems slightly surprised and a little disappointed that the star did not hit its target straight on. "You broke my star! That was expensive. Pure ruby, you know." The woman moves closer to the two of them as she speaks. "Oh you can leave. But you already know my price. I don't know that you aren't the violinist I was after. So I'll need to take that as insurance." She points to Mason's hand. There is a slight cracking sound and a diamond sword materializes in her outstretched hand. "But how about you…What the hell is that?" Eris seems dismayed at the new arrival. "Whatever you are, take that wounded thing away from here. I have business with this one." She nonchalantly gestures her sword at Mason.

Nicholas slides down the wall he's been leaning against and continues to hold his arm out towards Eris, since he needs to have his hand 'guide' whatever he's moving. "You're not…you're not taking his hand." He says as he starts to cough more. Then out of nowhere, at least to Nick, there's someone next to him. "Cale….contact the school..I'm not feeling so good…" He says as he passes out from his injury.

Mason still doesn't offer to take off his glasses to prove he's not the person she's looking for. After all, he's not entirely certain that he isn't the person she's looking for. He turns to Cale, "Get him out of here, I can handle this." Mason swallows, and turns back to Eris. "Okay, but…" He looks at his hand. "Can I know what this is all about first? I mean, if you're going to cut my hand off so that we can live, I'd like to know who you think I might be, and why that means you should cut off my hand." He approaches Eris at a slow pace, watching the sword carefully.

"Nick. NICK," Cale shouts, shaking the other teen gently; what does one do for a stab-wound to the chest? They pull out their phone and begin frantically hitting the panic button, that's what they do! It also seems that curious onlookers have taken it upon themselves to call the police. Cale, for his part, attempts to stem the bleeding by applying pressure to the wound, his and surrounding skin changing to a blood red color as his mutant powers do their thing. He's not noticing though. He starts to try to drag Nick off to the side, wrapping one arm of the much larger teen's around his slender shoulders. Thankfully, Cale is way stronger than he actually looks, and manages to get Nick to a safe area around the corner of the building.

Eris shrugs, tipping the sword to the side. "How should I know? They wanted me to cut the finger off some violin prodigy's hand to "send a message"." The woman makes air quotes with her free hand. "But fingers are so small and easy to lose track of. It's easier just to take the entire hand." She takes an attack stance again. "But the description was a bit off. Could be you. You kind of look like him, after all."

A random onlooker decides to step in and try to stop the crazy crystal mutant. "Hey! Leave those kids alone!" The man's charge is cut short when Eris stomps in his general direction, causing a thin crystal wall to erupt in front of him with a great cracking noise. The man decides to hide behind a car.

"What, you don't even know his name? How are you supposed to find him? I don't think your plan has been thought through very well. What is this message you are supposed to be sending? You don't like violin music?" Mason starts to grill questions toward Eris. "Sounds like I should keep my hand, and you should just get a finger." He takes another few steps toward her, eyes fixes on the sword from behind the dark sunglasses. "Why not just cut off the finger of some convicted criminal, wouldn't that save you trouble? How would they know what finger you cut off? You don't even know yourself!" The red trail of blood oozes down his left arm, gathering at his pinky as he walks, and then falls to the ground on the concrete.

Eris sighs. "Why would I cut off the finger of convicted criminals? That's who I work for. They might stop hiring me if I started maiming their colleagues. And I DO know the answers to those questions. Just the picture's a little fuzzy. None of that is important to you, however…Unless you're the person in question, which I'm actually beginning to doubt." She pretends to ponder for a moment. "Granted, to go this far and NOT cut off your hand. Well that would make this meeting a little awkward, wouldn't you say?" It seems that Mason has come close enough to the woman. She darts forward suddenly and spins, aiming her blade at the boy's arm.

Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a slimey pink… /tentacle/ of some sort darts out at lightning pseed, aiming to grab the arm that's holding said blade and yank on it. If successful, it's quite capable of lifting Eris up and slamming her into a parked SUV. Cale is perched on the side of a lamp post, sticking to it a fair distance up with his wallcralling abilities. Barefoot, too.

This is the part known as dramatic irony. Mason leaps forward. He expects and hopes that his bones will be hard enough to help him survive the blade without losing any appendages. What he doesn't know is that Eris' blade is fully conquorable by his powers. He also doesn't know that Cale hasn't left the scene. Mason aims for the woman's face, fist first. Unlike your average teen, however, Mason's fist is something like being hit with a brick wrapped with skin should it connect.

Eris's blade comes within an inch of striking Mason's arm before it is yanked to the side by Cale's tongue. The surprise of this does not give the woman enough time to dodge the punch aimed at her either, which dazes her enough that Cale is able to lift and toss the woman with little effort. Eris is slammed into the side of a nearby car, though the effect is less than expected. Rather than bouncing off the side of the vehicle, the woman smashes right through it. After a moment Eris stands, glinting in the light of the streetlamp as she slowly moves back toward the teen. Her crystal form retreats as she glances toward the source of the tongue. "My my. There sure are a lot of you out here tonight. Does this concern you?" She is addressing Cale.

Cale slurps his tongue back up, wiping a bit of slime off of his mouth with the back of his hand, "You're darn right it concerns me! That was my bo- be- whatever! I like him a lot! That was my friend you stabbed! I, I-" he chokes, tears streaming down his face. He's new at this whole 'keeping your cool during a fight' thing. "That's unforgivable, you cold hearted bitch! How could you do that?"

"Maybe because I stick up for mutants, they want to stick up for me," Mason answers Eris. "See, people think we gotta be at odds, but I seem to get along with them just fine." He gives a no-look thumbs up in Cale's general direction. Mason returns to the part of the sidewalk where the giant throwing star lay in two pieces, and picks it up off of the ground, half in each hand. "This sure is sharp," he says, examining the crystal formation. "Think I could cut off a hand with it?" He glances up at Cale. "Hey Carl, can you see if the cops are coming yet?"

There is no immediate response from the woman to Cale's display toward his friend. Once she has a chance to recompose herself she lifts a leg high into the air and stomps hard in Cale's direction. There is a great cracking noise as a line of crystal spines erupt from the ground and spread toward the pole that cale is hanging from. Eris turns back to Mason. "Yes, they're sharp. And this has nothing to do with mutants…Other than the fact that some happen to be here. I would rather work with mutants than humans, but if I want to get where I want to be in life, I have to work my way up the ladder. You know how it is." A few diamond needles the size of pencils are chucked at Mason.

"It's Cale…" the androgynous boy replies absently, peering down towards the street. He does indeed see red and blue lights off in the distance. "Yeah. They're coming," he nods, not really thinking that they should get out of here. Nick needs an ambulance and he's gonna stay until one shows up probably. As the crystals shoot out towards the pole and it starts to fall over, Cale takes a flying leap from it, landing atop a nearby car roughly and denting the roof of it as he does so. Owww. So, throwing this woman doesn't seem to do ANYTHING… In fact, she's basically just ignoring him! Hmm.

Mason flinches as the diamonds speed toward him. He holds the ruby star up to block most of them, bouncing off of the ruby formation. Two of them imbed in his thigh, though, outside of the protective range of the star. "Ow!" He whines. "That really hurt!" He winds up his own throw, slinging one half of the star back at Eris, with remarkably great force, considering the size of the young man throwing it. The half star whistles through the air, cutting its way back to the original owner.

Eris just keeps walking toward Mason. She ignores Cale completely now that he is out of her sight and seems completely unphased by the star returning to her. The woman holds up a hand and snaps her fingers when the star gets too close to her, causing it to dissolve into dust before it can strike her. "I can control crystals, you idiot child." The woman perks up as she hears sirens in the distance. "Damn it, what a pain. And they get so pissed when I kill a bunch of cops." Eris hesitates for a moment and suddenly charges, a massive diamond scythe materializing in her hands. "No time to play around, dear, sorry!" She swings the scythe in a wide arc toward the boy's shoulder once she is within range.

Cale is not sure what to do about this new development but it doesn't look good. Throwing Eris into a car didn't work… but he's not really strong enough to throw a car at Eris! Hrm. This is like something out of an anime? And what do anime characters do? EXPOSITION! "HEY YOU!" he shouts, tongue lashing out to whap Eris on the back of the head. It's not particularly damaging, but it probably feels something like a whip with a bit more weight to it. "Did you think we were done? Hah! I have yet to show you my true abilities!" *whap* *whap* *whap*

Mason is caught slightly off guard, and doesn't have time to look to Cale for help. Instead, he swings up with the remainder of the ruby star, catching the shaft of the weapon. He feels the diamond blade gouge across the back of his shoulder, tearing the back of his shirt. Mason winces in pain, and grabs the offending scythe, snapping the shaft portion with the blade according to his right hand before the left releases a backhanded punch at Eris' face. Hit or miss, Mason stumbles backward with the piece of scythe still in his hand. Blood pours down his back, running down his shorts and pants and to the ground around him. Nothing critical has been hit yet, but between the several puncture and slash injuries he's received, he is looking pretty worse for wear.

That annoying tongue. Eris is just distracted enough by it that she begins to turn at the end of her attack, causing her not to see the other star being used to perry her scythe. When the weapon snaps she is so shocked that she doesn't even try to block the punch, which sends her stumbling back several feet and causes her to drop the shaft of the scythe. She clutches her face with both hands as blood pours from her nose. Eris stares with disbelief at the remains of the scythe. "What the goddamn hell? You broke a diamond weapon. A DIAMOND weapon! That blade could have withstood over a hundred tons of pressure and you BROKE it. Goddamn you! You bastard! And my face! My beautiful face! And YOU! That's disgusting! Why would you hit someone with your tongue!? That is so gross. SO gross! Can you taste me? Don't answer that!" The sirens are incredibly close now.

"Don't care! I don't CARE!" Cale reaches out with his tongue once again, this time going for Eris' neck, and attempting to throw her through another car, still perched on top of the one that he landed on. Whether that works or not, he bolts off for where he left Nick, wanting to make sure he's there when the authorities finally show up, or whatever the case may be. He leaves Mason to mop up, since really, he seemed quite capable of taking her on himself anyway.

Mason considers Eris' statement. He just broke diamond? He glances at the blade still in his hand. "Your beautiful face? What about my back and legs and arms?" he answers. "You started this! Why don't you get lost before we have to beat your face in further?" He leans slightly to one side, much less ferocious in his stance than in his words. "Or better yet, let's go a few more rounds until the cops get here. Then you can get shot dead. Your diamonds stop bullets?" He considers his question. Would that work? "Or, grenades?" Maybe that sounds more intimidating. Do cops have grenades?

The tongue aimed for Eris's neck does make contact, but she is too quick to crystalize this time, her diamond form raising her weight to nearly a thousand pounds. When she glances back to confront Cale he is already gone. The woman turns back to Mason. "Yes, yes it does stop bullets! And grenades! The police know me and they fear the name of Envy." She walks toward the boy again but stops several yards away. "But I do not feel like fighting endless waves of police, especially since my employer tends to look down on that." She bends down to pick up the hand. "Well if this is the wrong hand, and yours is the right one…Well you can expect to see me again." She turns and begins walking away from the scene.

Mason's eyes go wide. Envy? He's heard about her on the TV. The color drains from his face. He certainly hopes that she isn't looking for him. Did he just fight Envy? He glances around, and adjusts his sunglasses and hat, and takes the ruby and diamond. He should at least get something out of this. He turns in the opposite direction of Envy, moving back toward Cale and Nick's retreat. He most certainly isn't going ot chase after her, especially now that he knows who she is.

~ Fin ~

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License