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Summary: When Mason throws a free concert in Mutant Town, not everybody is thrilled, and an anti-mutant group tries to take advantage of the situation to wreak havoc.
Date: Thursday, December 2, 2010. 6:58pm
Log Title: Snowy with a Chance of Handgrenades
Rating: R (For violence and language)
NYC - Thompson Square Park
Thompson Square Park is a small park in the middle of Mutant Town. The benches might need a fresh coat of paint, the fence might be rusted in places and the pavement is raised and has cracks but it's all part of the mutant haven and fairly relaxing. Trees and grassy areas are in between the many paths, there are a few structures and benches along the path as well as a special area of the park that is marked 'the dog walk'.
Thursday night is as good as any night for a concert. It's cold, and snow flurries fill the air. All the same, Mason has a performance to do, and the cold doesn't stop him. It wasn't widely advertised, and intentionally so. Mason didn't even tell his agent he was doing this. He's set up on the baseball field, his amps set up, his mom off to the side in a rather stylish looking coat. She has the soundboard set up, and the amps are turned on.
The advertisement had gone out to places where mutants are often found. Mason Steele, upcoming teen pop star, is doing a free concert in Thompson Square Park. Mutant Town had flyers posted on the telephone poles and community bulletin boards. Xavier's got word through an e-mail Mason himself sent out for the school to join him. Barnes was sent the invitation by Mason through their staff to pass the word along. And so now people have started to gather, most of them mutants, but some humans too who have managed to catch word through the grapevine and other means.
Having arrived with a gaggle of Xavierites, Kael's standing near the back of the crowd to watch the concert. He doens't like to be near the speakers as he likes to not have his spine vibrate from the bass that usually emits. Granted, Kael hasn't met Mason before; the offer of a free concert isn't that bad of a pull. The aerokinetic is dressed in a black pseudoleather jacket, black pants with now wet sneakers from the snow. And he doesn't look too happy about the last part.
A man in a bomber jacket wearing an Australian hat trudges through the cold toward the field. Bruce mutters to himself and hugs himself tightly against the cold. "Bloody Yanks. Why they have to do this on such a cold night." He squints at the figure out on the field and spits on the ground. Bruce had no real interest in attending this concert for the music. In truth he has never even heard of this kid before, but Bruce had seen the flyers and figured he should probably be here. Where there's music there's people. In Mutant Town those people are probably mutants, and where there are mutants there's usually trouble. At least, there's usually trouble whenever Bruce is around. He hangs toward the back and lights up a cigarette.
Might be cold but the cold doesn't seem to bother the kid with the unfortunate resemblance to a certain actor. (Distant cousin. No. We never met, honestly. It's a coincidence. No I do NOT sparkle. Sorry, he isn't any kind of werewolf. Sorry, I'm with her. *points to Rashmi*) GOT to come up with an alternate, less-similar induce for public consumption, Mike.
The crowd (near the back, safer that way) is pretty noisy, but Mike Drakos, Teen Robot In Disguise, is pretty sure he'll be able to hear better from here than in the middle of the scrum. He's in nondescript civilian high-schooler attire, a letterman-style jacket, jeans, a fuzzy hat, and a pretty girl by his side. Who, alas, is clearly old enough to be his (slightly) older sister.
"Trust me," Rashmi says to the latest gaggle of mistaken fans, "you'll know when it's him. The pile'll be three deep, and I'll be far, far away…" Chuckling and shaking her head, she nudges Mike's shoulder, nodding toward the stage. "Wonder what gave him the idea to throw a concert here, of all places? Not that I mind, of course, but it's not often Mutant Town gets to host anything like a public performance… oh! That doesn't at all remind me, but my roommate is *really* a huge car fan, you want to come with us when I find a good museum for her to go to?"
Mason has his mittens on, keeping his fingers warm until the last possible minute. He pulls one off and digs his cell phone out of his pocket to check the time. "Okay," he says, shivering slightly himself. "Here I go." He leaves his mom's side, who smiles in return. "Go get'm tiger," she replies, to which Mason gives a roll of his eyes, though she can't see it because he's already headed out to his keyboard. A few other people get up from the bleachers, one of them an obvious mutant, and grab the guitars and drums
"Hello Mutant Town!" Mason announces. "I know this might seem a little low key for me tonight. I didn't even tell my agent, wanted this to be a bit backyard bash style. I hope that's okay," he tells the crowd. The blue eyes dance across the audience. "A lot of you here are mutants, or friends of mutants. I want to do this for you because you're the minority. Most people in our country want to say that we're tolerant in America, but they still harbor this fear of mutants. Fear of something different. I want to come and do this concert for you, and for the sapien friends who come with you, because it shows that mutants and sapiens can get along. I won't say mutants and humans, because we're all humans here tonight, regardless of the difference of a single gene in our DNA." He sits down at his keyboard, and starts the first number. It's upbeat and fast, though admittedly the band behind him isn't quite the one he's used to, they do a fairly good job of keeping up.
Kael quirks a brow as he looks around the crowd, leaning back against a tree. He's crowd watching for the moment before he hears the screams of fans, and he looks over that way. It's hard to mistake Rashmi for anyone, but when you have an image inducer. Things can get interesting. He shakes his head with a laugh before he sends a breeze blowing towards the aerokinetic from behind the two people he knows, trying to lead them to a safe spot in the back. When Mason starts to speak, Kael looks up at the stage and smirks. "Well, least it's nice to listen to."
Bruce puffs his cigarette and shivers in the cold, frowning at the sky as it pelts him with tiny shards of frozen water. "He pulls out his phone to text a few nasty things to Lil for making him come out here, but he pauses when he hears the performer begin to speak. At first the kid sounds reasonable, but as the kid continues to speak Bruce suspects he believes that humans and mutants are equals. That is, of course, rediculous. Humans are less evolved and should just learn to deal with it.
"You want some pointers to museums?" Mike perks up at the chance to publicly geek out over technology again. Thanksgiving at his Aunt's place, which was not the whole family, but it WAS family, and she's just over in Pennsylvania, but his folks were in Seattle. He's been catching up, and fast, but he's still almost a week behind on the studies the school had set for him, not to mention his own side projects. His Xaviers friends might not recognize the old Mike from his behavior at Barnes. But then again, he's got a different kind of freedom there. They're not afraid to reward him by letting him play with toys. When he's caught up.
"Car museums, specifically," Rashmi corrects, lifting a hand in Kael's direction and following his lead. "She says she's really into muscle cars, I guess? I figured you'd have a better idea where to find that kind of thing in New York than I would, so…" Trailoing off as Mason makes his speech, she watches the stage, an eyebrow raised. "…Huh. Well *that* wasn't what I expected, but it's about time someone stepped up and said it."
Several girls are swooning, and their boyfriends are rocking out with the upbeat dance tune. As Mason finishes, they go crazy, excited that the pop star has come to perform for mutants. "You know, before I moved to New York, back in LA, there was a girl who was discovered as a mutant in my school. It was amazing to see how many people wanted her gone, just because they were afraid, because she was different."
Mason gets up and tosses his head once with his blond hair coming to rest and skirt his eyebrows. "She was denied a normal life, just because she was a mutant. Other people stood up for her, and tried to make her an icon for tolerance, and I can tell you, she didn't want to be an icon. She just wanted to be another kid in school. But the world wouldn't let her do it. There shouldn't be anything excitable for people to have a mutant in their school, or in their work. Because you know, mutants are people too. You mutants out there can tell me better I'm sure, you don't want to be a poster child, you just want to live your lives!"
The boy steps back to his keyboard. His songs have little to do with mutant rights, but he hasn't written any for that purpose yet, he's working on it. "This next song," he says, starting the first few mellow piano strokes. The girls in particular go wild. It's his biggest love song, Dreams. "This is for the girls out there," he says with a chuckle, "But I think they know it already. Guys, learn this song, they really like it."
~Dreams… Upon the still of night, on wings of angels' flight, take flight in me.
There, upon some distant shore, we want for nothing more, then what will be.
And you and I! Here were are, and when you smile I see the world means so much more.
Oooh If I could only read your mind, tell me the answers I would find, Do you dream — of — me?
If I could only read your mind, tell me the answer I would find. Do you Dream — of — me?~
Amidst the flashing iPhone cameras and swooning teenage girls, something else is happening. Bruce's pessimism may not be misplaced. A few cars park on the grass about twenty yards off, and a few men in thick jackets with hoods up get out and begin talking to one another.
Kael gives a non towards Rashmi and Mike, and it looks like he's going to say something before Mason starts to speak once more. He goes silent, and he hears some of the girls around him go silent as well. "Hm… that hits slightly close to home," whispers the aerokinetic before he listens to the song, closing his eyes a bit as he leans back against the tree behind him and listens to the song. The cars going unnoticed.
What a terrible terrible night. Nothing could possibly make this night any more terrible. Bruce finds himself standing on a freezing tundra listening to some kid screech into a microphone to a bunch of screaming girls. He sighs as he hears a girl nearby commend the boy for his words. "Bah. Bunch o' crap. Look at him. Stupid kid. He has no idea what the world's like. Probably get half these people shot just fer showin' up here tonight." He's not saying this to anyone in particular, but it's deffinately loud enough that the girl who was talking earlier, Rashmi, should be able to hear him. Bruce is about to say something else when he notices the suspicious folk get out of their cars. "Oh Bloody…What now?" He glances around the park quickly as though looking for something.
The suspicious folks driving up in cars all at once… Mike starts listening for the dulcet tones of CB radio and for other suspicious radio noises coming from the cars. Or the crowd for that matter. Some part of his attention is listening to the music and classifying it as "Well performed, soulful, DisneyPop" and determining whether it has a beat you can dance to by mathematical analysis of the rhythm. Please, let it have at last a LITTLE back-beat? A little? He doesn't say anything about the people driving up yet. And he's likely far from the only mutant in the crowd who is looking at them directly or indirectly.
Rashmi's nose wrinkles at Bruce's prediction, a sharp huff pushing steam into the night air. "Then maybe it'd be a good idea to make sure they *don't?*" A bit snappish for her, perhaps, but if her appreciation of Mason's music isn't on the same level as the screaming girls in the front, her respect for the event as a whole is absolute. Which is when, at the 'what now?' she starts glancing on the edges of the crowd, hand dipping beneath the flap of her bookbag. "Thank you, Magneto," she murmurs as the suede is pushed aside, a SHIELD-issue cell slipped out into the open. "Mike… You gotten ahold of the staff yet? This… looks……. hairy."
The song continues for a few more verses with similar sentiments before it finishes. It was a piano solo through the whole song, not nearly the upbeat beginning, but it's well received. The girls start screaming their approval. Meanwhile, another vehicle arrives on the other side of the field, a pickup truck. They drive up with their lights off, though, on the outside of the baseball field.
"This next one's new. And it's not mine, either," Mason confesses. "This next song we got, I wanted to reach out and let you hear one of your own New Yorkers, somebody who has a passion for music like me. Mr. Eddie Brown, playing 'The Friend You Never Knew'." There is applause as the guitarist bows. He's probably a college age student, and he has scaly looking skin, an obvious mutant. He starts in with a rift, not the pop sound that Mason is known for. The electric guitar wails a rather impressive opening solo before the drums join in with the bass guitar, and finally Mason joins in on the keyboard.
There is indeed radio traffic that Mike can pick up. It's ambiguous, but there are apparently people planted in the crowd as well, and they are preparing to start…something. Spotting them might be a little more difficult with all of the raging fans. Now the boys in the crowd are getting more excited, especially the ones who were dragged there by their girlfriends and have no interest in Mason Steele's music. The men from the cars have taken up positions at the edge of the bleachers on opposing sides, and look at one another, rather than the concert itself.
Kael glances over the direction of the man talking to Rashmi, and he quirks a brow before he lets out a grumble. "Oh. Joy." Then he notices the drivers and he stands up, his hand slipping into his pockets to handle the cellphone given to him by the school. But he doesn't press the button just yet, nothing has happened just yet.
Bruce hesitates for just a moment as he watches more men arrive. He furrows his brow and tips his hat toward Rashmi, leaning in to whisper "I'll do what I can, but you may want to get out of here. Don't run, leave real casual ok?" He apparently doesn't hear her mention Magneto, but he does spot Kael. "Ah, Windy. Keep an eye, eh? You might be useful here." The Aussie looks around once more, puts his hands in his pockets, and simply walks away. He seems to be heading toward a section of the park designated as a playground.
Mike says, without changing his apparent "Rocking Out" to the current band, in a quiet tone to Rashmi, "I'm listening to their radio chatter, not clear what they're up to, can't even tell if it's malicious but they have four or five people in the crowd as well as the ones out here. I'll send a note to our current and former staff since I see some of our alumni."
Which may or may not trigger the silent or noisy alarms at Xavier's but will definitely get the folks from SHIELD to pay attention. What is it whenever they let these kids out, they get into something MESSY?
Bruce's gentlemanly note earns him an odd look from Rashmi, but as the bartender turns and saunters off, the redhead shrugs to herself. "All right," she murmurs to Mike. "Show me where the nearest one in the crowd is, I'll start over. If they do something stupid, I can at least be closer than I am now… Kael?" Looking up at the aerokinetic, Rashmi manages something like a smile. "Good to see you again, wish there was time to chat."
A certain pop star's mom seems to have taken notice of the developing situation as well. Mason's mother is focused on the distant driver, though, He's too far away to see through the lights which shine on the field, especially given the illumination of the flurries which continue. The crack of the gun can't be heard well unless someone was carefully listening for it. Mainly because of the roaring concert. The effect, however, can be seen. One of the men at the edge of the field is knocked to the ground, near where Kael's tree stands. His partner in crime bends to check him, and starts panicking into the radio. "Geoff is down, somebody shot him! We've been made, we gotta blow this now!" Suddenly the man shouting into the radio is taken out as well, and he falls to the ground, clutching his shoulder.
At this moment, it may become much more clear who it is in the crowd. A man ten feet from Mike and Rashmi looks around with a panic stricken face. He pulls two grenades from his coat, one for each hand. Still, he hesitates, and glances to another man along the back of the crowd, a bit farther away, who gives a shrug. Whatever is happening, it isn't according to plan.
Kael lets out a soft laugh. "I wish we could chat as well. Maybe later, we can go for coffee." He looks like he's about to say something else before the gunshots take down the two next to him, and he looks into the crowd, spotting the man pulling the grenades out of his pocket. If there was wind blowing in the area, even a slight breeze; it's Kael's now. His hair bleaches itself white as he points a hand towards the man with the grenades. Several fast moving balls of air aiming towards him. One for each wrist, and one for the chest region. After the orbs are launched, Kael's hand dives into his pocket where the Panic button is pressed. Now there's a second set of alarms blaring at the school.
Bruce glances back over his shoulder as he heard the gunshots. The shots must have been fired on this side of the concert or he wouldn't have heard them. Regardless, he'll need a bit of ammo himself in order to be as effective in this situation as possible. Bruce spits out his cigarette and runs the rest of the distance to the playground.
The man looks around quickly before moving over toward the jungle gym. It would appear that the designers made the ground under this structure into a large sandbox, which Bruce finds to be particularly useful. The man holds out a hand and pulls the sand toward himself, spinning it into a large construct and turning back toward the crowd. It is hard to see what exactly is happening from the snow and the glare of the lights, but he assumes it will be harder for anyone in the crowd to look out into the darkness than it is for him to look in. Bruce points his construct in the proper direction before becoming sand himself and joining the form. Anyone looking out into the field will see a 15 foot tall sand dog charging toward the crowd.
Grenades. That's not going to happen. Mike moves FAST and grabs the man's hands in a carefully calibrated grip of steel. Not to crush, just, not allowing them to do anything silly like pulling on pins. He signals SHIELD that there are armed and dangerous and that there have been shots fired, and a second later, says "OW!"
Sadly, Mike and Kael never worked together, or the burgeoning windmaster would have known the speeds that the robot mutant can achieve at short range. He's made the single step lunge to the man AS Kael is forming his will, and the wind balls impact, WHAM WHAM WHAM in the middle of his back, ripping away at the fabric of his letterman jacket. As he says OW, Mike steps forward one step more than he intended to, but doesn't let go of the man's hands. He shakes his head and tells the man, "No. You're not allowed to play with those toys here."
The one that Mike's target had looked to for help, Rashmi has her eyes locked on. At the back of the crowd, a half-dozen cool blue lights wink into existence; Rashmi's spheres, arcing up and around toward her target, as she skirts the edge of the crowd toward him. Legs will be aimed for if clearly visible, shoulders likewise, but certainly the top of his hood will garner a smart rap. Meanwhile, her fingers fly over the pad of her phone, calling in to the SHIELD line that students are given access to, echoing Mike's own report; "Bombers in the park at Mutant Town, shots fired, live grenades confirmed!"
Mike's tackle takes the grenades from the attacker's hands. It gives the cue to his ally that the gig is up, and he quickly pulls his grenades from his pockets, Just as he is about to pull them, though, Rashmi's spheres take him out at the knees, causing him to drop one of the grenades. Another shot rings out, this one at the sand dog running across the field. Some of the concert goers start to realize at this point that something is wrong. The fifteen foot dog causes them to stop their cheering, and start to back up. Mob mentality is a dangerous thing. At the top of the bleachers on either side, two more men pull grenades from their pockets while men on the opposite side pull MP5s from under their thick coats.
Kael skips to a bottom of one of the bleachers, a mumble coming from him before he extends a hand towards the bleachers, rushing in behind him and cascading up the bleachers was a pure gale of wind. 70 mph of just pure wind rushing towards the two at the top of the bleachers. "Looks like you two get to be grounded." Enjoy the fall.
If the large sand construct is struck with whatever was shot at it, the entity certainly does not seem to notice. As the massive dog approaches a man seems to materialize riding on its back. The dog stops for a moment so Dingo can look around at the situation. He decides that the men with MP5s look like they need to be trampled and decides they will be his target.
The fifteen foot tall dog leaps up into the air and slams into the ground near the crowd, landing in a wave of sand that snakes through the crowd like water. Dingo runs through the crowd with the sand, moving directly toward his targets.
Mike's attention is now split three ways. He's listening to the radio traffic trying to identify what's really going on, he's pulling the man's hands together so he can zip-tie them, which may involve some minor struggle, but there ARE heavy duty nylon cable ties in his SHIELD-built slimline belt pouches (which he wears because, damn, SHIELD stuff is cool even if it's just weird tech-geeky stuff) and oh yeah, he's updating the SHIELD group en-route with as much as he can get of the situation. (Not speech. Text. Faster.)
He yells out to Rashmi, "Caveat granitam!!"
Rashmi nods shortly, a trio of spheres darting around to slam into her target's chest; off-balance as he is, it's hoped the impact will drive him to the ground completely. "SOMEBODY GET THE CROWD TO SAFETY!!" She tries, very hard, not to think about what exactly she's aiming to scoop up as she nears 'her' bomber, because nobody sane ever *wants* to find themselves holding an operational hand grenade.
At this point, the music stops, the performers also realizing that there is something critically wrong. Mason stands from his keyboard, and turns around to see the dog just before it sinks into the ground and snakes between the crowd. Another bullet streaks through the air, and just grazes the star's arm, tearing through his shirt and continuing on to strike one of the girls who is on the retreating front row.
One of the two on the bleachers managed to pull the pins on his grenades before the gust hit. He throws them forward into the air, only to see them suddenly be gusted backward behind him, and then he is struck by the gust as well. The grenades land behind the crowd by a good margin, and detonate, sending dirt and grass launching into the frigid air, while the bomber lands on his back, the wind knocked clean out of him. The other bleacher bomber was completely unready, and likewise ends up on the ground, gasping for breath and holding his arm.
Mike and Rashmi, however, have a serious problem coming their way, even though Mike has tied down one of the bombers. It isn't Rashmi's bomber, either, as he's driven into the ground and loses grip on his other grenade. It isn't the attackers at all that is the threat for these two, it's the panicking crowd that poses them the most direct threat. A hundred fangirls are screaming, and blindly rushing in their direction. The good news? The crowd is running for safety.
The MP5s open fire, sub-machine gun fire spraying into the crowd. There is further screaming, and the gunfire is drawing them now too, shifting to threaten Kael's position if he doesn't move.
Kael spins around in order to see the fangirls rushing towards him and past him. There's a swirl of air before Kael takes to the air; the snow swirling around him as his eyes flick towards the stage and the aerokinetic flies towards there. At the clip of speed he's going, he reaches the stage in a rather short amount of time. Once his feet touch down on the wood, there's a swirl of wind around him and a dome of wind forms. Using the snow in the air to act as cover as he looks over towards Mason. "Get behind something."
Dingo stops suddenly as the men prepare to fire, his sands rising up quickly to form walls between the shooters and the crowd. A few fans are still too far out to be protected, but the majority of them will be protected from that particular burst of gunfire. Dingo shifts the sands as he moves closer, staggering walls to slowly move forward toward the shooters. Once he makes it past the crowd the Aussie pulls his sands into a single wall between the attackers and the fans. Dingo steps through the wall and folds his arms, frowning at the men with guns. "Really? Why the crowd. If you'd shot the kid at least he'd stop making music."
Danger, Will Robinson. Mike _FEELS_ the surging crowd before he sees them, and in one smooth movement, picks up the malevolent idiot (and grenades, if he's lucky; grabbing them was part of the intention) and heads in the direction the crowd was bolting towards. He's faster, most likely.
The next message to SHIELD says, !!shots fired, casualties possible serious, sand-mutant terrorist Dingo is present and may be detaining gunmen, singer probable target!!
Scooping up the second grenade, Rashmi turns just in time to watch the crowd surging in her direction, hot on Mike's heels. Crouching down over the fallen bomber, the redhead snarls, "if you want to live, you stupid idiot, *don't* *move.*" Her spheres buzz around her, then arrange in a wedge formation, pointing directly at the oncoming crowd, as she mentally steels herself against the strain to come. Holding the spheres in tight enough orbits as to be effectively stationary, the simple part. Holding them there to force the crowd to part around them, herself, her downed terrorist charge, and provide shelter for Mike, not so much. But as much as the crowd pushes, Rashmi can push harder, for all that the effort will give her a blinding migraine.
Mason grabs his arm. There isn't much to get behind. All the same, he drops to the ground fists first. At the back of the field, there is the dull crunching sound of the small pickup as it is hoisted into the air on one side, and rolls over.
The two shooters look rather panicked at the sight of Dingo. "Look out, it's that terrorist!" one yells to the other, and begins to unload the rest of his rounds at the sand mutant.
As the crowd surges forward, Mike is indeed faster than the mass. As for Rashmi, the crowd surges against the spheres, and several of the people become caught, rather than filtering around, and start to get pulled under as well. One manages to get under the spherical defense, and bolts through the defense, landing on the terrorist and clumsily trying to get out on the other side.
Emma has arrived.
The headlights from the distinctive shape of an Aston Martin Vanquish can be seen as soon as the monstrous V12 engine of the British sports monster can be heard. Pure silver-white that looks distinctly clean against the gritty backdrop of Mutant Town, shining and flashing under the running street-lights in an unbroken sense of an oncoming terror… and those view who can make out any detail behind custom white-tinted windows can see plush white leather. For the students of Xaviers, there is only one car with that combination and what it can mean. The vehicle goes from full acceleration into a side-ways drift-stop, squealing and throwing smoke… an awesome and panic-inducing sight for any, and enough shock and awe to perhaps distract the terrorist at the rear firing into the crowd. The tires are barely done steaming as the door opens, and one perfect white flat steps out, followed by the rest of the Headmistress of Xavier's cultured body, and the only comment those perfect lips can mutter is, "Gent
"Gentleman… I am peeved. Running is no longer an option."
Kael turns around to see Mason fall to the ground, and he's about to yell something at him when the roar of that engine is heard over the yells and shots of the crowd. "Ah… damn." The wind dome vanishes into thin air before Kael drops down next to Mason. "I'm going to guess that your show is over, and that we're going to be escorted home now. So I'd suggest getting up quick and move towards that white car in the back. In a rather. Fast. Manner." He looks up at the car, and gulps. "And I wouldn't dawdle." But he does wait for Mason to run first.
The bullets fired at Dingo pass right through his body and thud into the sand wall behind him. The man shakes his head and snaps his fingers, causing the sand wall behind him to rise up like a tsunami and crash down upon the men. He buries the two under his sand-valanche and turns back to look at the crowd, trying to determine if anyone else is posing an immediate threat to the crowd. Seeing that most of the other threats have been subdued he decides it is time to go after the one he holds responsible for this mess.
Dingo holds out a hand to the pile of sand covering the shooters and makes a fist, pulling the sand down with such force that it causes a slight tremor in the ground. Anyone underneath that pile is unlikely to have survived. Deciding that was enough to keep the men from causing further trouble Dingo reconstructs his sand dog. He glances down at the boddies of the shooters and then looks up with some confusion as Emma appears. He seems to contemplate the woman for a moment before noting that she appears to be unarmed. Dismissing her as a non-threat he turns and walks toward the stage, the construct walking behind him. It seems Dingo is heading straight for Mason.
Not trying to hide behind Rashmi, Mike moves towards the side, and up to the man he saw/heard fall from the near bleacher. He hasn't had time to recover; Mike's hoping to strap this one up as well. And SHIELD is really very likely to arrive on Emma's heels, for that matter; some local SHIELD men have been taking a personal interest in Dingo, for some reason. International mutant terrorist, whose bailiwick? Big time.
Fortunately, the wedge is as high as an average bowling ball, allowing for those caught against it to be tugged beneath to freedom, the desperate runner shouldered aside. "Keep *running* already!" A knee plants itself, not terribly gently, atop the terrorist's chest, holding him in place as Rashmi strains against the press of the crowd. "MIKE! BE CAREFUL, WATCH THE CROWD!!"
Mason looks behind himself at the pickup. "Ha!" he laughs, and that is the only attention given. In the chaos, it'd be impossible to pinpoint him as the source of the spike of stone that has jutted straight up from the ground and overturned the sniper's little truck. The flurries of snow have started to become thicker, but not so thick that the pop star doesn't see the oncoming sandman. "…Mom!?" he yells out. He seems less concerned with Kael's warning, and more concerned with the oncoming threat.
Mom is on it. Though not nearly as powerful as Emma, Mason's mother knows a thing or two. She focuses on Dingo, and starts to work her telepathic magic, planting a suggestion that Mason should be protected rather than harmed She's crouching behind the soundboard to avoid easy sight.
The crowd continues to surge around Rashmi, some of them falling over each other as they pass by, getting stepped on as the rest continue. The crowd, however, is headed straight for Emma and her shiny white car. It seems the rest of the threats have been contained, however, given that the last two attackers have now been thoroughly buried by the sand.
There's perks of being one of the top tier telepaths on the planet… and while Emma Frost might not have the raw power at the command of the Shadow King, or the will of Charles Xavier… or even the Phoenix Force to back her up… what is lacking in power is more than made up for with the subtle knife of her versatility. Kael, Mason, Mason's Mother, Rashmi, and Mike all feel the brief mental touch, almost like a comforting hand on the shoulder as someone passes by, and then she forces herself into the crowd… mentally. While the woman stands there nonchalantly, checking her nails… the entire crowd, the terrorist, even the people in the places close by watching with their phone cameras and their dollar-sign eyes as they ready to upload to Youtube… all of them receive a firm command to sleep now, followed by a fast spin-up of a REM cycle. The only person who would be left standing in the crowd besides those she had already buffered would be Dingo… who was already being affected by another.
Kael grumbles a bit and stands up to yell at the boy before he blinks a bit, shuddering slightly before he looks over at Emma. Even if the touch is comforting, he knows why she's here and that she's going to want to talk to him. He mutters a curse under his breath before he hops off of the stage and starts to walk towards the white car. His hands in his pockets, but his head held high.
Dingo picks up speed as he moves toward Mason and Kael. The crowd moved away from him after he put up that wall, so now he has a fairly straight path to his target. As he approaches, Dingo begins to yell at the boy. "You stupid little bastard! What the fuck were you thinking? Set up a concert in mutant town in a hard to defend location while there's shooters around? Not a coincidence. Who do you work for!?" He waves an arm at Kael, "Outta there, Windy. Get in my way and you'll be worse off than this little prick."
Dingo suddenly slows down, the expression on his face seemingly blank. He does continue to move toward the stage however, stopping near Mason and glancing down at him. "You should get out of here. It ain't safe." The construct collapses and snakes out in a semi-circle between Mason and the croud before transforming into a wall of spikes.
Calming a crowd? Not part of his repertoire without being in a vehicle, and besides Emma has it covered, so Mike finishes tying up the second grenade-fool and zip-ties the man's left ankle to the left ankle of the OTHER grenade-fool (the one he was carrying) to make a useful package for SHIELD or other law enforcement.
He walks over to Rashmi and checks on the third grenidiot, who seems to have trample-marks whereas Rashmi is simply in her usual slightly migrained out situation. The fourth … might be visible beyond the other bleachers but by now if anyone WAS downed by that gunfire it'll be time to get to them.
The sudden lack of pressure against her hastily-constructed barrier causes Rashmi to overbalance; for an instant, the spheres spray outward, before the redhead can grab control of their reins again, and pull them back inward. Her head rises, and she seems to go limp with relief at the sight of the passed-out mob. "Thank you Lord," she sighs, pulling herself up to her feet and raising her phone to her ear once more. "Student Franklin, update; crowd is pacified, assailants restrained, civilian medical attention urgently needed. Yes… … …yes, we'll stay until the EMTs are done, and give our statements to the police. …Yes, I'll have my report in before class tomorrow." It's at that point, that she gives Mike a jaundiced look, then searches the park for Emma. "Oh… *there* you are, Ms. Frost… *Thank* you, seriously."
Mason has never felt a telepathic touch before. It's strange to him, and he doesn't quite identify it. He watches as Dingo changes demeanor. Miraculously, there have only two deaths, those being the shooters that Dingo ended for their crimes against mutants. There are, however, a lot of injuries. People have been shot, people have been trampled.
Heather, Mason's mother, lets out a sigh of relief as the mass falls into a slumber. "Thank you, Ms. Frost," she says, fully aware of what just happened. Sirens come blaring down the street toward the scene. If one looks closely, there were actually a few officers in the crowd. Unfortunately, they were caught and unable to act during the whole event. Now though, there are a lot of officers on the way. Mason probably won't get the opportunity to get back to the school for a while the way Kael will. He has some questions to answer
The pop star stands back on his feet, and takes a seat on the stage, placing his head in his hands. He doesn't even have anything to say. After a moment he looks back up to Kael. "Thanks," he says, not realizing that the aerokinetic is a classmate of his. He stands back to his feet, and walks toward his mother.
Emma walks towards the fallen crowd and the situation at hand, before saying, "Mister Langford… where in perdition do you think you are going. Have we not taught you better? There are wounded people here… we should be triaging the wounded, preparing what we can for the medical technicians and the SHIELD agents who are inbound. We should also be checking for any other devices that might make this situation worse. Do not think you can get out of your civic duty out of some misplaced sulk." And walking PAST Kael, she moves towards Rashmi and the others, and without a word begins to work… her mind putting her to where the worst of the wounded are, "Miss Franklin, Mister Drakos, if you would be so kind as to give us a perimeter sweep and take care of the gawkers, I would be grateful. Miss Steele… take your son to my car. In the trunk is a first aid kit. You may tend to his wounds there." And without even looking at Dingo, she motions, "You may let him go… if he thinks he can do anything at this poi
"You may let him go… if he thinks he can do anything at this point to further sew chaos, I will remind him I am far more experienced in villiany."
Kael looks back at Mason, and smirks. "You're welcome." Then he looks over at the bleachers, more importantly behind them at the man on the ground and then he looks back at Emma, blinking with his mouth open slightly. He rubs at his forehead before he runs to the two grenadiers behind the bleachers, to see if they're still alive. Once he's done with that, he calls someone over to help him being then back towards the crowd. Once he's done there, he goes around to help with triage. With how he can really. He's not that great at it.
Dingo seems to wake up from his trance, shaking his head a few times and looking around a bit confused. It would appear that although he is no longer under anyone's control, he does not remember that he was targeting Mason as a potential member of the shooter's group. The man's sand collapses down into a heap and he walks into the sleeping crowd. He glances around in confusion and moves toward Emma slightly. The man stops and looks around again, deciding that this woman must have something to do with what happened to the crowd. He shifts direction away from her for now, moving to the closest downed gunman and leaning over the man. Dingo fishes around in the mans pockets and pulls out some sort of hand held radio, a wallet, and a gun. The Aussie stands up and aims the gun down at the shooter before tipping his head at the sound of the sirens. "Eh, not worth my time." Dingo turns and runs in the opposite direction from the sirens.
Mike has gotten back to Rashmi in time to receive the liver-shuddering gaze, and grins in movie-star fashion. "You know you missed this. I certainly did. I'll be caught up next week and I'll debrief you on the horror that is Being Clockwork."
He waves a thank you to Emma, and is already at work on the perimeter as the SHIELD crew begin arriving and the grenade crew is removed. There's probably some discussion with New York's Finest about the first ones to get custody, but a coin-flip goes SHIELD's way. (Almost as if it were a trick coin or something. But it came from the NYPD pocket.)
"Yeah, Mike… I missed this *so* much. And sure, Ms. Frost… Um… Just a second." Tugging the hem of her skirt up, Rashmi actually manages to daintily pick her way through the snow and sleeping civilians, toward the stage. "Um… Hey wait a second… Mr. Steele? Um… I just want to say, thanks for trying. It was really, *really* a nice thing you did, and… well… it's not your fault, okay? This was people *ruining* your show, you were just trying to do something good. So.. Keep doing it, okay?"
Mason arches his soft brow at Rashmi, and offers a weak smile. He'll keep trying, but he feels that he did more damage than good on this attempt. "Thanks," he answers her. "I really needed that." The teen's mother adds to his comment. "Thank you hon," she tells her, patting the girl on the shoulder. "That was really sweet of you to say." But with that, she takes Mason over to Emma's car to take a look at the wound to his arm.
Emma remains on scene until the SHIELD Agents and the Police have come in full force and begin to cordon the area and start funneling the slowly waking crowd up and out, the cold overriding her brief but powerful command. Those who are the worst of the injured she has simply stood close to, focusing on them with a powerful intensity that brooks no interference, and many of them are in much better condition than if she had not. Blood flow stopped, shock abated, minds comfortably numbed against the pain to keep them from becoming worse. Though she will not show the fatigue, there is a subtle stress line along the outside of her eyes. As the first EMTs come to take in the worst, she stands and begins walking back towards her car, "Excuse me… I am double-parked." And perhaps in sheer audacity, or just out of sheer convenience… the perception shift engages once more and she goes to her car and sits down, closing the door, and taking a moment of blissful alone time.
Once Kael's finished doing what he could do, he looks behind him at the police officers as one of them comes up to him. He says what he's supposed to say, show them what he's supposed to show them. Skirting around any points that he's not supposed to do or say. After that, he heads for Emma's car, to sit by a tree to wait for the time to head home.
