Players:
Summary: Kalindi and Fiona encounter the crazed Tabitha and try to stop her.
Date: July 20, 2011
Log Title: Rat Girl Explosions
Rating: PG.
NYC - East 42nd Street
Traveling from East to West in the center of Manhattan is 42nd street. The long street is home to Grand Central Station, United Nations, Bryant Park, New York Public Library and Times Square. This street has many stores and restaurants tailored to the more upscale and tourists of the city. There are also many theatres along this street for Broadway Musicals and motion pictures.
Kalindi is out on her street, walking slowly back home from her martial arts practice, her hands curled around the straps of her backpack. She seems a bit weary from the day's events, but only has a few cuts marring her skin from her high risk sword practice session with the Taskmaster. She hums a little tune from a musical she has seen recently, though she's not terribly adept at hitting all or any of the notes.
Conspiciously, Fiona wears no backpack nor does she really carry any kind of bags - which would leave one at a loss as to where she keeps any of her stuff, for those who don't know her. On the other hand, she hasn't really FELT like carrying anything today and so - a little abuse of powers now and then is fine, right? "Kalindi, hey!" she gives the other girl a wave, calling out her name. It's been a while since she's been seen around. Maybe she's been being good and actually studying so she doesn't fail out of school? Fat chance.
Thus far, as far as Kalindi and Fiona can tell, it's been a relatively quiet evening; the traffic hasn't been getting out of hand, and there haven't been over many pedestrians. But then into the relative calm comes the thunderous growling of a high performance engine being pushed straight to its limits. Tires screech and horns blare as a white, practically brand new Camaro blazes through a red light, and comes tearing up the street; as it gathers speed, it charges straight for a T-Junction, the one where the two girls are just meeting up, and seems hellbent on the building across the top of the junction.
Kalindi furrows her brow and nods to Fiona, "Hello, how are you doing? I had thought you were dead or something like it." She looks up at the Camaro and raises her eyebrow slightly, "Hm. I do not drive, but I think that is against the rules, yes?" She blinks a few times and says, as she seems to draw a golden sword and shield from her backpack, "Ah, is it coming for us?"
"Holy crap!" Fiona whirls on the speeding car, blinking as it comes towards them. "Hell yes that's against the rules! It's gonna slam into that building! It's probably a suicide bomber or something!" Not that she's particularly paranoid about that stuff, but… This would be what she imagines it to be like! She flips a gold key around her finger, ripping open a portal momentarily. Yeah, why not just BLAST a car full of explosives! This couldn't possibly end poorly, could it?
The car continues to tear up the street; as it enters the T-Junction, it doesn't even turn, and within moments it impacts with the building in front of it. As it rushes by, the two magicians might catch a glimpse of the backseat, if they are observant; and it's loaded up with propane tanks, no less. There's a sound of screaching metal as the roof tears free, and just a split second before impact the driver leaps out through the recently formed hole in the roof. Tabitha lands in a crouch in the middle of the road; behind the car and contents explode violently, blasting away the front half of the building and causing people to flee and cars to screech to a halt, as their drivers get out to hurry away on foot. The rat girl merely straightens, her hair blowing in the blastwave, though she seems otherwise unharmed.
Kalindi uses the shield to fly straight up at the explosion, and flies away to land behind the vehicle in what seems like quite a dramatic leap, rather than actual flight. She turns towards Tabitha and blinks a few times, "Ahh, you are a rat girl. I have instructions from a friend about you… Are you called Tabitha?" She raises her blade and takes on a fighting stance, while a tendril of gold pulls out her iphone and brings it close so that with her shield hand she can dial.
By now, Fiona has managed to pull her wands out of the portal and close the thing, before catching sight of Tabitha. "Tabitha? What… the hell?" there's a completely confused look on her face - the girl she knew NEVER would have done that… right, right?
Tabitha walks away from the fireball, and tilts her head to one side to crack the vertebrae, audibly. "Patches," she replies, tail lashing behind her as she approaches. "The name is Patches. …And you two must be a couple of Marvin's lieutenants, here to check on his… investments. Well, now you can report back to him that it's on fire, can't you? Tell him to come fight me himself, next time." The rat girl comes to a halt, and crosses her arms in front of her chest. As she stands still she erupts into flames; bright orange flames, that lick across her body and drip fire on the ground around her. "Now flee."
Kalindi shakes her head and completes the call, using a gold tendril to keep the phone up to her face, though while it's ringing she replies to Tabitha, "No. I have spoken to a friend, a mutual friend, and I think that you are not in your right mind right now. So, I will stop you." The blunts her blade, and then dashes towards Tabitha, intent on hitting her in the chest with the tip.
"Yeah, I don't think fleeing is going to work for me, either," Fiona replies back, feeling the magic already pulsing through her - the wands are powerful conductors. She seems reluctant to attack Tabitha though.
Tabitha observes the approaching Kalindi, and sets her feet, adopting a classic kung fu stance. Her eyes narrow, and as the golden sword nears her, she jumps to one side, and rolls out of the way, coming up in a crouch. As she stands, she holds her hands out to her sides; twin blasts of flame rocket outwards from her, searing abandoned cars and igniting fuel tanks, setting the streets ablaze and blanketing the area in thick, black smoke. Illuminated by the orange glow, she backs away another step. "Do you value your mind? What is it worth to you? Run while you still have it."
"Hello NNF! Hello, Rashmi, it is Kali," says the young woman, eye flashing black as she hold her powers, after the attack with her blade passes by, "I have found your friend, she is called Tabitha, yes? She is threatening to destroy my mind or something." She raises her eyebrows and jumps away with a roll to avoid the fire and gets up in one fluid motion, "She is also on fire."
Rashmi on Kali's phone: "…..Kalindi? Um. Yes. Yes that's Tabitha. …Kalindi, get out of there if you can, okay? She probably can't copy your powers, which is good… but if she's *on fire,* then you need to go. I'll call SHIELD and see if they can get ahold of her this time, okay?"
Fiona lets out a squeak as cars explode around her - still, this is far from the worst thing she's ever seen! "Tabitha, stop! I'll blast you if you don't!" she brings the two wands together, charging up a powerful attack; while she throws Kalindi a 'what the fuck is going on?' kind of look.
Tabitha hops backwards, and jumps up onto the hood of a burning car. The flames lick at her feet, and are lost in the inferno that wreathes her body. Her attention focuses on Kalindi, and she scowls at the gold-manipulator. "I gave you two chances to flee," she states. That appears to be all the warning that is given, before she focuses the powers she copied from Emma Frost; and into the mind of Kalindi, she plants a vision. Out of the bonfires of gasoline all around her, Kalindi would see spiders, tarantulas as big as a fist and made of solidified flame, leaping into being. A horde of them, a hundred strong and more, come rushing forth. Kalindi would see Tabitha raise a hand to languidly point at her. "Kill her, my children," declares the rat girl, adopting a crooked smile. …Fiona, meanwhile, would only see Tabitha turn to gaze at her, and shake her head. "Don't try it."
"Oh come on Fiona, just do the magic thing to her! She is wanting to kill us!" shouts Kalindi, past the phone, before she gets back to the call, "Yes, yes, I just have to get this other person out of here and-" She pauses on the phone and looks around quickly, tossing her shield to the ground in order to fly up on it, using it as a platform. "Is she able to summon giant spiders made out of fire? Because she just did…" She wield the dulled sword with two hands and looks down. "Fiona, are you okay?"
Rashmi on Kali's phone: "Giant *what?* …..Okay that's it, I'm going to call SHEILD now. I…. Kalindi, however you get out of there, do it *now.*"
"I'm FINE!" Fiona fires off the charged up attack, blasting a beam of energy at Tabitha - enough energy to blast a car-sized hole in that building behind her, should it miss. Her eyes glow a bright purple amidst all the smoke and carnage, hair flowing around her - very much like a witch of the olden days. Or something stylish like that.
The rat girl ducks, and dives off to one side; but still the magic beam blasts across her back. She shrieks, and skids across the pavement; the leather jacket she wears has a massive hole in the back when she stands up, and for a moment the fire is gone, reveealing burnt fur and sizzling skin. The rat girl pants loudly, and scrabbles backwards, towards the badly damaged building… until her hand touches a piece of rebar. She stands up slowly, and her body takes on a new quality, as flesh becomes iron and she takes on a metallic sheen. Her footfalls take on a much heavier sound as she approaches once more, walking towards Fiona at a leisurely pace; and in her mind, Fiona would see the flames behind the rat girl swirl and eddy, whisking cars up off the ground as the burning vehicles twist and contort. Metal groans and glass shatters, as the vehicle reform into hulking, humanoid golems, that together start a slow, clanking advance towards the girl with her wands. Kalindi, meanwhile, would see spiders leaping and jumping at her, but not quite managing to reach her where she is flying.
"Like I said, I have to get her out of here…" says Kali into the phone, before turning to her ally. "Hey, Fiona, we should probably be going from here, this is not to either of our advantages for staying!" shouts Kalindi down, raising her platform a little higher at all these creepy jumping spiders. She raises her sword, and dips it into her backpack, the gold coming out of there and the gold of her shield reforming into golden body armour so that she floats at the same height, but holds her dulled blade in both of her hands. "I need to keep Fiona from being hurt, I will try to be fast to leave." She divebombs, whether it be through the mental spiders, directly towards Tabitha from above while she seems still injured from the other demonic mage's wands, to try and smash her into the ground.
"Ohhh…" murmurs Fiona, shutting her eyes tightly for a moment and shaking her head. She looks around for a moment, trying to find a good spot to run to - unfortunately, she lacks Kalindi's convenient manueverability. She does fire a few more bolts in Tabitha's direction as she backs away, before running and disappearing into the smoke. Or trying to, anyway. She's not stupid - she knows she can't blast through solid steel, which makes it rather pointless to stay. "THIS ISN'T OVER! NOT BY A LONG SHOT!" she snarls - voice having changed a little, characteristically, from a helping friendly tone to a much more aggressive one.
Rashmi on Kali's phone: "Okay. Okay. Get her out, too, but do it quickly. I have to hang up, okay? I need to call SHIELD in. God, just… be safe, Kalindi. Both of you. *Please.* *doot*"
Energy blasts hammer into the rat girl, blasting holes in her clothes but only leaving scorch marks on her iron skin; and then Kalindi is there, and Tabitha is knocked to the ground beneath the gold clad warrior. The clang of metal rings out as Tabitha grapples with her assailant, hissing and snarling herself as she skids on her back across the ground. "Enough!" she shouts. She scrabbles backwards, and shoots a grin up at Kalindi. She tilts her head, and focuses her thoughts to change Kalindi's perceptions; and forces her to imagine all of her gold turning instead into dull, heavy lead. Leaving her with that vision, she tilts her gaze towards the fleeing Fiona, and narrows her eyes; and to the wand-wielder, she sends alterations to the vision of car-warriors, making them… run faster.
"What, she did not even let me say goodb- Ohhhhh no no no…" says Kalindi, falling to one knee under the weight of the lead, which she cannot control, nor is strong enough to lift. Even if it's just perception, it shifts her attention away from the reality of the situation, and she can't grab a hold of her powers. "This must be fake, this /must/ be fake," mumbles the woman, trying to convince herself unsuccessfully. "FIONA! Hit me with your magic, break my armour!" she shouts, unsure if at this distance the other can hear her.
Fiona can only barely see Kalindi - and well, it's questionable if she's visible to the other girls, but out of the darkness blasts a violet beam of light - dead on with Kalindi. Funny how magic has a way of aiming properly that no GUN could ever do… By now, though, the sorceress is starting to choke on the smoke and toxic fumes. "Kalindi!" she shouts, "We've got to get out of here! We're going to suffocate!" she coughs, eyes watering.
Tabitha kicks herself free from underneath of Kalindi, and pulls herself back up to her feet. Overhead there comes the unmistakeable sound of a helicopter, and the noise of sirens come from multiple directions. Tabitha backs away a step, and her lips peel back in a silent snarl; she looks at the kneeling form of Kalindi. She steps forwards, and aims a swift kick at the girl's chest, moments after she's struck by Fiona's beam; and then she backs away, into the flames and smoke of two burning cars. She forces her thoughts on thw two mages one last time; and simply edits her own appearance out of their perception, so that the world will continue to seem exactly as it did moments before, just … without Tabitha in it. "Goodbye," she whispers into their minds, as a last, parting statement.
Kalindi's armour is cracked open by Fiona's blast, especially as Kalindi is no longer able to maintain it. She fortunately knows how to take a hit, so even with Tabitha's surprise hit, she absorbs it quite well and rolls back, furrowing her brows. While she is good at absorbing the hit, she still clutches her chest. "Telepath powers," she hisses, "I should have known it was telepath powers. Fiona, is this still gold, or is it really lead? I cannot leave it, it is very precious!"
Fiona pushes her way back into the smoke momentarily to make sure Kalindi is okay, "It's gold. I'm pretty sure. Unless she's messing with my head too. You can control it, right? So if you can't pick it up, it's not gold. Simple, right? We really should be getting out of here. Unless you relish fighting the police, but I don't want to have to explain this," she waves an arm at the wreckage.
Kalindi closes her eyes and says, "It must still be gold, I just need to focus." She puts her hands out, and the broken armour expands out into a very large disc and then sits down on it, still keeping her eyes closed for the moment's being. "Get on here. We will go."
Fiona scrambles up onto the disc, sweeping her skirt beneath her as she sits down on it - she doesn't believe she has the balance to stand up on such a thing.
Kali's eyes open again and the disc flies directly up into the air, dodging the lights of any of the helicopters and going far out of sight. No need to explain anything to the police now.
