Players:
Summary: While out and about in Salem Center, there's a run in with the infamous Sabretooth!
Date: June 2, 2010
New Pair Of Shoes
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 a lovely evening in Salem Center and the Grind Stone is a common hangout for Xavier's Students. Robyn has been hanging out in the coffee shop for the last hour, actually doing homework and now he's leaving with his backpack slung over his shoulder. He's dressed in all black like usual, his t-shirt is sporting a skeleton rabbit on it. His earbuds are in as he's making his way to the bus stop so he can get a ride back to Xavier's. It's still a bit of a walk back to the mansion from the bus stop but at least it's better than having to walk the entire way. Damn it'd be easier if Connor was here with him with his teleporting.
Coming out of a clothing shop carrying a few bags is the professor the school on the hill was named after. He's been taking his time, enjoying being back in the US. Eventually, he'll go back to the mansion and actually talk to the staff there about picking up a teaching position, but right now… he's perfectly happy to relax. He stops to sit on a bench and just… people watch for a few moments.
«Need a lift?» Asks a certain British voice. Jonothon is on his motorcycle, heading past where Robyn is. Not quite there yet, but he saw the teen and isn't too bothered by a few hundred feet of distance. Sure it's a lovely evening, but a ride back is faster and easier. Has no idea the Professor is here. Just spotted Robyn for the moment, and with that he slows to a stop near the teen. «Hey, mate.»
When things get a little boring around campus, Chezlie has found it much more entertaining to partake in a little mall area people watching. She's in one of her norms; gray t-shirt sans the sleeves and a pair of shorts that once were jeans. Eyes wandering around the area, she's quick to notice not only Robyn at the bus stop, but a recently arrived Jonothon on his motorcycle. "Robyn! Jono!" She shouts out, lifting her left hand for a quick wave as she heads in their direction.
All at once, about four car alarms go off in the parking structure, in a cluster near the mall side. Annoying and irritating, but probably just something that someone normally ignores: must just be some motorcycle drove by them in there and vibrated the floor, setting them off. Some logical reason like that. Oh, no, wait. THAT was a crunching metal sound. One of the alarms turns off. Crunch. Okay, down to one alarm going off. Wee-oooo-weee-ooooo.
It's a rare day when Tara decides to go out on her own, but her collection of audio books has run a bit thin and it's time for her to visit the mall's Barns & Nobels to pick up a few more. The biggest reason why she doesn't like striking out on her own is that she has to publicly show that she's blind, and use her cane. After all, while her odd sixth sense allows her to have very good spatial awareness around her, it does jack all for reading labels. She tilts her head as she taps her way across the mall, thinking she heard somebody from the school call out to somebody else from the school when all the car alarms go of. "Stupid car alarms," she grumbles.
Robyn smiles at Jono's offer and nods. "Sure, as long as you have an extra helmet." After all Robyn's powers don't include protecting your skull from pavement. "What are you doing out here…oh hey Chezlie." Robyn says with a friendly smile before spotting Tara as well. "Um Jono…you don't have a minivan do you cause I see Tara over there too." He pushes his bangs out of his face and looks over where the sound of car alarms is coming from and then hears the sirens. "I hope it's just someone's Lojack or something."
While some people can't sense others, the same does not hold true for all. An overwhelming psionic presence draws Charles's attention as he stands again and looks over. "Jonothon." He states with a smile on his face. "I am pleased to see you here. I always felt you would be good fulfilling an educator's roll, with your unique gifts." He says before nodding to the others. "Robyn. Tara… did that sound like metal to anyone else?"
One helmet he has, tied to the back. Jonothon normally doesn't bother, for obvious reasons. He's midway to motioning to said helmet when he stops. Uh, no, no minivan. Those don't exactly strap to the back well. «I could go get one if you wanted to wait.» That he doesn't mind. Would take about ten minutes really. Certainly faster than the bus, and cheaper. He lifts a hand to Chezlie, but doesn't get any farther as Charles appears. The Brit looks entirely stunned. «…Professor?» Might be a surprise for Charles as Jono has his face back. He's struggling with this as the metal is asked about. No, didn't hear anything. Too stunned.
"Meh, I could easily get home the same way I came; walking." Chezlie says, waving the notion off with one of her hands. The sound of metal crunching is more than enough to catch her attention, as she twists her head in an attempt to look in the sounds general direction. "That's odd…" She mutters to herself and looks to the new arrival, who gets a simple head nod for now, not knowing at all who he is.
Chirpchirp from the alarms. Crunch. There's a heavy, scraping sound, and crunch of concrete, breaking glass and metal all wrapped into several seconds of noise that follows the car alarms finally ceasing. Huzzah, peace and quiet for everyone. And a potential source of blame for all of the noise moves swiftly, long paces quick due to height, to carry one large mutant out of the parking lot. A male follows him, yelling, "Hey— that—-" but decides maybe to shut up after getting a brief glance back, and instead stands there poking at his cell phone instead of chasing Victor anywhere. Victor, though, is currently on his way towards the mall. Because destructive, demolition-prone mutants are always safe to allow into large public places like malls. A trio of pre-teen girl shoppers going back to the lot to get picked up careen out of his way, dropping a few bags. "Ohmigod a mutant." "Shhhhhh it'll hear." "Ewwwwww."
Yeah, that's definitely the sound of Robyn and Jono and all the others. She pauses in her tracks when the crunching starts happening and starts to frown as she makes her way to the small crowd of Mansion residents. "That doesn't sound good," she says to the group once she gets there.
There's a wave from Robyn as the professor says hello but his eyes are looking towards the noise and he is slowly taking off his backpack. "Should we go check that out?" They have Jono with them so it should be okay, right? And that Professor Xavier guy is here too so…they should be good to see what's going on. That's at least what Robyn thinks.
With that call, Professor Xavier already knows there's something going on. He reaches out his mind briefly before pulling back. "Sabretooth." He states simply. "Jonothon. I no longer carry communications. Perhaps you would do the honors?" He says as he begins walking in the direction of the sounds, actually, more than a walk, but not quite a run. Right into danger. But then, that's not unusual for him. Well, not the moving to it. The walking is.
«What?» A look to Robyn, and a blink. Realizing that everyone is looking off a certain direction, Jonothon does in time to see Victor heading to the mall. «….» That so doesn't look good. «I'm not sure.» Concerns for the students, who of course will barge right in, and for the bystanders. Jono knows enough to know that Victor is not one to take lightly. «Could I talk you into staying away from that bloke?» Putting down the kickstand, the Brit turns off his cycle and pockets the keys as he slides off. To the professor he nods, and sends a call towards the school on his comm. Likely only Charles can hear this since it's telepathic. This is done as he follows Charles. This so won't end well.
Said Sabretooth is listening, to an extent. However, there's so MUCH to listen to: the mall is full of voices and music and smells that sorting out some people that might happen to mention him outside isn't happening for the moment. He pushes into the mall, head low, posture not hunting, but more on the relaxed, prowling side, either ignoring or unaware of those coming along in his wake. And wades into the crowds. Which, compared to him just standing around by himself, raises the bar several fold in potential damage, if he does become violent.
Chezlie nods her head with tons of enthusiasm, still looking in the direction of all the noise and the gargantuan sized cause of it. "I think we might want to go check it out. I mean, there usually are tons of people in the mall and it'd be terrible if any of them got injured. Right?" In an attempt to seem a little more convincing, she tries to reel in her smile, a poorly executed attempt to hide her over all excitement. It's way to obvious how eager she actually is. Without waiting for a response, the little teen begins to follow both Jono and Charles towards the mall.
"Not on your life," is Tara's answer to Jono, and charges in after Charles and Victor, cane held aloft in hand, not bothering trying to pretend to use it anymore. "I mean, seriously. When was the last time I ever payed attention to common sense?" She's grinning from ear to ear, just like she was during her first day of school and was attacked by Sinister's Mauraders.
Students, they never do what they're told and there's a smile in answer to his rhetorical question. "Probably not Jono, I mean if there's a mess and people need to be brought to safety you're gonna need our help." He looks at Chezlie and Tara and nods to them. "Come on." He says to his fellow students and starts to make his way over to the mall.
Reaching out, Charles feels the other minds around. "Children, be careful. Sabretooth is extremely dangerous. He has nearly killed several well-trained X-Men in the past. As Jonothon can attest to. He is extremely mentally resistant. And, as of yet, he's not doing anything untoward inside. Do not go in with guns blazing. Simply be inconspicuous for now." He states. As he reaches the door, he slows down, carrying his bags still, acting as though he's going in for some more shopping.
Jonothon motions a sigh for being totally ignored. Ah well. People get killed it's their own fault. «You're an idiot. All of you.» No laughter in that either. His mental voice is strangely dark. «They won't listen.» He says to Charles privately. «There's no talking sense into any of them.» Good luck with that one, Professor. The Brit tunes out the kids for the moment as he pushes into the mall. Maybe if he can get a hold of Victor he can lift the other to where no harm can be done, but for now Jono is merely following, trying to keep up with Sabretooth.
Since entering the mall, Victor headed along one side of the entrance, and is very easy to locate. Mostly due to that the general public gets out of his way and, after he has passed, turns and stares at him. He's not ripped up and bloody, but he isn't masking the large claws on his hands right now, and just his physical bulk alone draws a look, even if the feral attributes aren't noticed. Anyway. He moves to his right, and out of view into an althetic shoes store. Most of the browsers inside exit, and stop to stare in the windows. The employees don't like it either, but don't say anything, they just watch him saunter around in the store uncomfortably. Doesn't take telepathy to catch their brainwaves: 'Pleaseleavepleaseleave.' Victor picks up a boot and sniffs at the 'leather', and tosses it aside.
Chezlie looks to Robyn and only nods in response. Yes, it's usually what the students do, charge in recklessly, but she for one has had few chances to part-take in such activities. Granted, she did get her shoulder broken during the one little encounter she had with Sinister's minions, but that was a fluke? Right? So as before, she continues to follow the others into the mall.
"How bad could it be?" Tara asks innocently enough. "There's five of us and one of him." Famous last words, that. Still, she's keeping with the pack and not rushing off to confront the beast. "I mean, he hasn't done anything bad yet, right? What if he's here for an Orange Julius?"
"Yes, Orange Julius Tara…I love your optimism." Robyn says as he runs after the adults and right now his plan isn't to dive in head first but to see if he can help escort people out and if there are any injuries help with them. As Robyn runs inside the mall a surge of fear and excitement runs through him, there's a bit of annoyance but the adrenaline covers most of that up. "Where too?" Run the opposite way the crowd of people are running.
Charles can't resist a light chuckle. He's forgotten what his students can be like from time to time. "Be careful children. Distance only. Do NOT get close. And like I said, right now, he's not doing anything. So just… wait. If he starts something, we'll step in. Until then…" He states as he runs a hand over his scalp.
Ignoring that question, Jonothon is entirely focused on Victor. Doesn't get what the man is doing, but he really doubts it's because Vic wants a new pair of hiking boots. Although he sure hopes that's the only reason. And finding isn't that difficult. Go where people are staring. Then again Victor doesn't entirely blend. A glance to the Professor, and the Brit is frowning. «I don't think he's going to be able to hear me.» Not if Victor is resistant. «You're going to have to do the talking.» That to Charles. No way he's saying that to the kids. Outside the shoe shop, he too watches from the crowd.
From outside, they'll see Victor prowl around a little more, but then something else causes a reaction. Nothing visual, he doesn't turn to look, he doesn't perk his ears, and certainly doesn't hear any telepathy: it's smell. Familiar smells. And suddenly, without even a tiny bit of warning, Victor MOVES. He bolts, full speed, at the door, directly at the crowd, with a gutteral growl. He's not raging in any manner, he's in full control. "Get LOST," Victor snarls at the onlookers, suddenly on them, amoung them, in the middle of it. Instant confusion from the curious (and now alarmed) onlookers. Victor doesn't claw, doesn't bite, just… is allowing people to run into each other, trip each other.
"Of course." Chezlie says, having a worse fear of getting in trouble with the school should she charged this man and start an unnecessary brawl. May not be for the right reasons, but at least she's doing what's being asked of the students. She's keeping herself just behind the two adults still, her pace just beginning to slow down. Probably wouldn't look good of they were all bunched up together in a group. Looking over at Robyn, a simple question is poised. "What's an Orange Julius?" Then there's movement from Victor, followed by yelling. Doesn't really matter if she gets an answer to her little questions, her attention is fully on the mass confusion now coming from the mall patrons.
Tara looks more stunned at Chezlie's ignorance than Victor's outburst. "When this is over, remind me to show you," she says to the other girl. Then the panic starts happening and she frowns, and grips her red and white cane as the mass of panicking people only serve to confuse her senses. She concentrates around the villain and uses her telekenetics to gently nudge people away from him, making it harder for them to panic in his direction.
Robyn gives a slight smile at the Orange Juilius comment. "A frozen orange drink." He says quietly as he goes to move closer to where Sabertooth is, not to attack or stop him, and not getting /too/ close, but just to observe for now. Robyn moves so that he can hide behind the sign for the Bath and Body Works store two stores down from the shoe store. He's got a better view but is still trying to stay out of site. Knowing at least Jono will be able to hear him Robyn tries to think for him to hear. « If there's anyone hurt, let me know, I'll try to get them to safety. I've just seen scared people so far though. »
"Keep him away from people. I'm going to control the crowds and get them out safely." Charles states, physically and mentally as he reaches out to grasp the weaker minds and use them as a cohesive whole. He reaches a hand up to his head and starts. "Keep them safe. And keep him far back." He says simply, mind and voice.
«Christ.» Bum rushed by Victor. Why does it always have to be highly obvious spots? The Brit bursts into flame to protect himself from the crowd as Victor rashes forward. Gentle nudges of TK to keep them from getting too close in their panic. It leaves Jonothon as one of the few remaining near Sabretooth. Also leaves him very obvious, but he certainly doesn't attack. This standoff isn't going to be a fight because he pulled the first punch. Unless the fires are a sign of attack. He's dreading that too.
"Not FAST ENOUGH." A sidestep, and one of the displays, the type that swivels when you push it around, full of high heels, ends up under Victor's hands. Which, well, wouldn't be a problem, except that evidently he's strong enough to rip…all of it upwards and sideways, flinging the whole of it at the nearest obvious target that isn't doing what he demanded. That would be Jonothon. Victor has no intention of just leaving it at that… After the large missile, the mutant himself pounces just after it, using the blindspot caused by the projectile. In other words…knock away the projectile, and you get something worse, the mutant itself with a slamming wrist and forearm at roughly head height.
The one thing that Chezlie immediately takes note of is Victor's claws. They look huge. And sharp. Like something she wants nothing to do with and knows should her powers be put to use it'll definitely bring her up close and personal with the beast of a man. "Perhaps some of us should try to help some of these people out?" She speaks to really no one in particular, swallowing down what seems to be a rather nervous filled chunk of saliva. "I have a feeling if I end up any where near him, I'll never know what an Orange Julius is!"
Tara's spatial awareness gives her something of an advantage in that she's able to sense the beast's leap even if Jono cannot. "Jono!" she shouts, "Look out!" She reacts without thinking, pushing hard on Victor with her telekinetics so that if Jono does push the shoe rack away, he won't get a face full of furry fury.
Robyn just stays hidden behind that sign for the time being, just happy it's not the one that Victor ripped up. Though at Tara's words, Robyn pops up and can't help but shout as well. "Jono!" He resists running forward though and he also resists just instinctively using his powers since Professor X said earlier that Sabertooth was resistant to mental powers. Crap..he's not sure if he can do anything.
Hearing all of the mayhem around him, Charles is too caught up in what he's doing. The people in the vicinity take on a mildly haunted look as they begin walking in unison to a door on the other side of the mall. Charles is, in essence, too busy to do anything else right now.
Jonothon catches the projectile with psy-fire even as it's being knocked away, but that doesn't mean he can stop that second slam. Tara's push does help a good deal though. His head rocks back instead of entirely knocked off, blood flies, and the fires snuff out immediately. The Brit is unconscious before he even hits the floor, and being rushed at as he was, he sure enough goes sliding across the smooth floor as well. He's a black lump laying near the wall of the store across the way. The rotating display goes flying off to the side.
Chezlie found the worst time to not be paying attention to what's happening in front of her. Watching the few remaining mall patrons scattering away, she takes a couple steps forward, looking to where she last saw Victor only to find a rotating shoe display flying straight towards her. "Gulp." is the last sound she makes before the object connects, knocking her back and cracking her head down into the tiled, mall floor. The first hit would have been nothing, but it's the second that leaves the little teen in an unconscious little pile, surrounded by a broken display and shoes.
"Crap!" Tara yells, as she isn't fast enough to save Jono. When she sees that Chezlie goes down as well, she refocuses her power and drags both of them across the slick floor to where she, Charles and Robyn are, before Sabretooth can get a chance to chow down on them. Hopefully.
OOooooph, telekinetic shove changed the momentum for the pounce, and he falls short of where he'd expected to be, but quick adaptation is a strong point of a feral. Claws lance out into the floor as he lands, gripping on, prepared for another telekinetic strike, starting to bristle, the scent of blood starting to lean him further away from being coherent. He squats on the floor, breathing in thickly, near to Chezlie where she fell; Jono slid further away and he doesn't appear to orient on him at all. "You DARE _try_ to follow me, EVER, and I'll make shoelaces from your intestines," Victor spits in general threat, starting to rile himself up, baring his fangs— and, incidentally, hunting the person that shoved him, nose flaring. He watches where the bodies go, leading his attention directly to Charles, Robyn, and Tara.
"We should probably get them back." Robyn says to Tara as he gets ready to grab onto Chezlie as she gets pulled closer so that he can pull her to safety. That's when he notices Sabertooth heading in their direction. "Run Tara!" Robyn says as he turns and starts to run away from the clawed man. Survival right now is more important that playing a hero, there are some battles that just aren't worth dying for, shoes isn't one of them.
As the place begins to clear out, Charles is still focussing. Most of the people are clear, but there are still a few that are not gone yet. "Children. Run. Get away as quickly as you can." He says to the students as he focusses. "I'm getting them to safety. Or at least away from here. Victor, leave the children alone. If you can see, they were coming with me." He lifts the hand holding shopping bags. "Shopping."
Yeah, this doesn't look good. So to speak. Not that Tara can see anything, but with one throw, Sabretooth took two of them down. "Robyn!" she calls to him. "Make sure we don't run into anything!" With that she grunts as she picks up the four of them, all but Xavier himself, and starts moving them towards the exit with her telekinetic flight.
Victor watches the telekinetic flight progression, but doesn't chase. He's a jumper, and they're not out of range since it's still indoors, but he doesn't follow, he glowers in his mess, slowing to stand just outside of his little raging mess. "Find what you were looking for?" he mock-jeers back at Charles, instead. "I hate lettin' my prey go….so, Get a move on, leave me to MY business, and maybe I'll not follow YOU people around like you did me?" Victor suggests, wrathfully. He's boarderline leaning into losing the coherency, and really dislikes watching the others float off. He's itchy to chase….
It's just a weird feeling running as fast as you can then suddenly being lifted off the air and psudeo flying. "Thanks Tara….lets just get the hell outta here and get back to the school. CAn you fly us that far?" He asys as he doesn't know the limits of her telekinesis.
"Victor, I'm going to ask you to leave. I know what's in your mind, and I know how unpleasant it is. But you also know, that if anyone here can stop you simply with the sheer presence of mind, I can do it, even if only temporarily. Leave here, and let these people and these kids go, and I will not harm you." Charles states as the last of the people leave. He stands tall and firm in his belief. Sure, Sabretooth could rip him to pieces, but Charles is at least strong enough to temporarily knock him out. Hopefully. He hasn't acted on that in a long time.
"I… don't know," answers the girl. "If it was just me or one of you, yeah, sure. It's pushing it with this many people." Still that doesn't stop her from accelerating as fast as she can manage to get as much distance between Sabretooth and themselves.
"I was here first." Snottybratty answer. And it has about the same tone, too, that one would expect. But a deep, snickering laugh is added onto that, rattling and horrible, that screams of the unpleasant things Charles just touched on verbally. Mostly since, well, had the others been there first, Victor still would have acted the same way. "They didn't have what I wanted anyway," he says, moving away, but not without a hard lash of leg at the fallen over display, sending it careening through the center of the mall to smash into a bench. But he is leaving. Stalking off. Grrr.
Nodding Tara, Robyn takes a deep breath. "Then take us as far as you can, and when you need to land, land, and maybe you can take Chezlie the rest of the way and I can call for help to get Jono and I back?" After all Robyn thinks Chezlie is more important to get back than Jono cause Robyn knows Jono can handle himself and doesn't die easily. Chezlie, she's still a student like him and isn't made of psychic energy.
As Sabretooth begins to leave, Charles starts to relax, reaching out to the students. «He's leaving.» He sends, extremely clearly. «You may relax.» He watches after the feral mutant before he begins to make his ay back to the school.
Tara's flight is less hurried once she gets the message from Charles, but regardless, people are hurt, and one of them conventional medical science can do nothing for. Sure Jono may not be her most favorite of people, but she's not heartless. She manages to get all four of them to the school, going at a clip of about twenty miles an hour, and by the time she lands them all on the front lawn, she collapses to her knees, panting and sweating. "… Made it…" she manages.
