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Summary: Tabitha attacks a music store in Mutant Town; Aiden, Vance, Vinny, and Kai intervene.
Date: June 25, 2011
Log Title: The Dirge of Violence
Rating: PG-13 (L, V)
NYC - Mutant Town (Avenue B)
Mutant Town, also known as District X, has become a haven for mutants. This section of town doesn't care what you look like, accepting all mutants no matter what their appearance. Most of the businesses in this section of town are mutant run ranging from small convenience stores to clothing shops to restaurants to night clubs. The buildings here aren't the high rise buildings you might find in mid-town but most are about 5-6 stories high. Mutant Town might not be the most luxurious section of town, in fact it's fairly run down, but this section of where mutants are safe and welcomed regardless of race, religion and culture.
Continuing his outreach work in Mutant Town, Vance in his Avengers uniform as Justice is using his telekinetic powers to rebuild a large hole in a wall literally lifting bricks into the air an putting them in place. Floating up above he looks own below at the passers-by and notes all is surprisingly peaceful this afternoon in Mutant Town. A pleasant chance of pace!
Aiden steps out of Le Bistro Bestial, taking off an apron and shoving it into his duffel bag. He's been working the last eight hours and has some time to kill before going home, taking a shower and going to his next job. He's dressed in a black pair of jeans with a multitude of zippers and buckles and button up black t-shirt with a red tie while his tattoos are showing a green color. Aiden's wings are tucked up against his back and he's standing a few feet away from the door to the Bistro as he takes out a small mirror to check if his hair and eyebrows are neat..well neat to his standards.
Kai has had a lot more time to work on his main objective since school finished so he's been pretty darn busy, he's dressed in black jeans, black converse, a black hoodie, hood up with a red t-shirt underneath, today's plan of action is again bringing him to mutant town and heading down Avenue B.
Into the quiet, peaceful afternoon, the sound of a meaty, powerful engine rends into the calm. A somewhat beat up Dodge Charger, from around the late seventies-early eighties era, comes charging up the road. The vehicle is certainly speeding, and is gathering velocity. The engine growls like a hungry, enraged animal; and then the driver pulls onto the wrong side of the road to avoid stopped cars, and blasts through an intersection against the red, narrowly missing a pick up truck and a smart car. The white vehicle continues to accelerate, gobbling up the road. Ahead of the vehicle, a T-Junction; and across the street, a storefront for a music store owned by an older, and well respected mutant, and it seems the Charger is heading straight for it.
Hearing the relatively peaceful lull in Mutant Town come to an end by the charging Charger, Justice turns his attention to the Dodge vehicle and having heard word of a stolen vehicle and seeing it head straight for the storefront. "Woah!" He holds his hand out gesturing like a pianist as he attempts to use his telekinetic powers to hold the Dodge Charger and lift it off the ground and flying closer towards it.
There's a pause for a few seconds from Aiden as he watches the Charger head towards the music store. He's not sure what he can do to stop a moving car but seeing the costumed hero, Justice, do his thing he runs straight for the music store with the goal to get everyone out. "Everyone get out. There's a car heading for this place!"
Kai stops in his tracks when he spots the car heading towards the music store only out of curiosity than a want to help, he has got things to do after, but wait, Aiden and Vance are here?, weird non-humans seem to attract each other like magnets, he seems to see at least one of them every few days.
The Charger grinds to a halt with a loud squeal of tires, a cloud of smoke and the smell of burnt rubber from the strip left on the road. The back end of the vehicle lifts up into the air, but the loud clatter of shattering glass accompanies the destruction of the store-front window, after the last minute arrest of the vehicle's motion. The car skids sideways in those last couple of seconds, turning the passenger side towards the store; and before it has even stopped the driver's door opens, and the lone occupant throws herself out, rolling across the sidewalk. The rat girl, recognizable as Tabitha to those that know her, snaps up to her feet, and jumps up into the air. Her body ignites into a blazing inferno, and she rises up to ten feet over the ground. "Should've known," she shouts, as she holds out her hands to her sides and generates a ball of flame over each palm. "Last chance to run!"
While not having met her, Justice is well aware of who Tabitha is and the standing order from Iron Man to use more restraint than he usually does against the Barnes student. When the action of the car stops and the driver is out it is finally lifted into the air and Justice places it along with the bricks he had been using onto the roof of a nearby building as he goes to confront Tabitha. A safe distance away and surrounded by a telekinetic aura, he calls out to her, "Tabitha! Stand down! We know what is going and this isn't your fault!"
Immediately recognizing the Rat-Girl, Aiden blinks a few times. He doesn't remember her name until Justice calls it out. He doesn't call out to her yet as he's too busy trying to get people to run, escorting whoever he can out of the music store. "Come on folks, follow me! Go to the Bistro, they'll hide you out there." He says as the green in his tattoos is completely gone and is now replaced with red and yellow.
Kai has never seen the Rat-Girl before so doesn't react to her or her name other than with, "Huh, giant rat", there is something however that gets more than a huh from him which also makes him so much more unlikely to get involved, the fire that Rat-Girl is playing with.
"Bullshit!" bellows the rat, her voice oddly distorted by the flames engulfing her. "You're just like the rest — Iron Man warned me about you! You're with my *Father*, you just want to kill me!" She surges forwards, and the two fireballs leave her hands, preceding her in her headlong charge towards Vance. "Well it's not gonna happen!" She continues with a wordless, banshee shriek, generating a growing wreath of flame about herself as she barrels straight towards the Avenger.
Meanwhile, the small handful of people in the music store aren't about to question Aiden. Someone wishes to lead them to safety, while a powered battle is heating up? Nobody argues, nobody questions. Everyone goes straight for the Bistro, including the shop owner.
Having been engaged to Firestar, a flaming mutant coming directly towards him does not scare him. Justice yells, "I said Stand Down!" He flies perpendicular from her to avoid any direct damage from her charge and attempts to encase her in a telekinetic field. "I don't want to hurt you." The heat she is generating is making things a bit hot for Vance as he tries to contain her.
After everyone is out of the music store and back to safety Adien flies out and over towards Tabitha, staying about teen feet in the air. "Tabitha, what are you doing?" He asks. "If you need help with something, ask. Going around and destroying people's business isn't the answer. Mutant Town doesn't need one of our own attacking it."
Watching Tabitha charge at Vance Kai sighs, Vance has been nice to him and has genuinely tried to help him out he's finding it hard not to get involved, his still not going anywhere near to fire but he does pick up a garbage can and launch it at Tabitha.
The rat girl finds herself stopped dead in her tracks, trapped within a forcefield and lost to view within her own inferno. There's no response to the order to stand down; there's no answer to the missive from Aiden. For a moment, the situation seems to be well under Vance's control; and then the containment around Tabitha is sorely tested, by a barrage of telekinetic bolts, originating from none other than Tabitha, and matching Vance's full strength. "LET ME GO!" she roars at last, letting the flames wreathing her extinguish for the moment. Telekinetic blasts burst outwards from her, smashing into the forcefield; at the same time, six glowing orbs spring into view outside the bubble, each on their own trajectory as they rocket outwards, smashing away at the building below her if left unchecked.
"What the hell?" Justice yells as he is met and matched by Tabitha. Not having encountered an equivalent, Vance is able to maintain and strengthen the field around Tabitha, but with each blast he begins to falter. "Damnit, she's a mimic. Explains the powers." Wishes he had known that beforehand. With blood dripping from his nose as the orbs appear, "God, can't contain her and stop the orbs." He lowers the field around Tabitha and finds himself falling to the ground as he attempts to raise a field smaller fields for the spheres to collide against hopefully before hitting the building.
Aiden lands on the ground and slowly walks towards Tabitha, holding both his arms out. "Tabitha…calm down. We can work out whatever is going on." He says trying to get a hold on her emotions to tell what she's feeling. Once he's got that down he's going to start influencing them to make her feel calm.
When the far off attack has no effect and as the flames have gone Kai pulls his hood forwards to try and hide his face sightly and runs towards the Rat with the psychic bowling balls, as he runs he forms a ball of his own roughly the same size as Tabitha's, he launches it at her as he get's withing 20 feet.
Vinny comes down the city at a jog as he heard the crash from his apartment building. Of course the brief glow from the hurled fireballs put a little more urgency in his step. Upon reaching the scene he breaths a small sigh of relief as nothing is on fire yet. Still not 100% after his work in Hell's Kitchen he's a bit leery of getting into a powers battle, but he's not going to give up the opportunity to stop Tabitha either. His eyes flare a brilliant blue color and a few seconds later there's a gurgling noise from the local storm drains before columns of water erupt from them. He watchs her outburst and whistles low "Bloody 'ell.. this is gonna be ugly." He begins to advance on where the melee is taking place.
Tabitha allows her spheres to wink out of existence, as they are surrounded by forcefields, stopping them just short of causing structural damage. Her hands engulf in wreaths of flame, and as Aiden is approaching her she unleashes to blasts of fire straight at the Bistro where everyone from the music shop had gone to take shelter. "Stop getting in my way!" she shouts, as a forcefield of her own snaps into view around her. A telekinetic bolt is leveled at Vance, the strongest she can manage. And then, Aiden is close; and fire surrounds her hands once more, licking at her clothes. "…No we can't," she replies. Her rage ebbs under Aiden's influence, as she at least holds off on lighting more fires. "I have to stop the traitor… I have to save the world. You don't understand. Get out of my way." The ball of ice from Kai impacts against her forcefield, where it shatters; Tabitha grunts as she's rocked by the attack, but lets it go unanswered for the time being.
Stopping the spheres, Vance is pretty wonked out as the blast comes his way, but festering up enough strength he stops his fall and flies out of range of the blast. Now, while Iron Man has requested Tabitha be caught he finds protecting the civilians more important and erects a field the areas specific to where the blasts are aimed. Easier to snuff out the blasts than put up a large more exhausting field.
"You don't have to do this alone." Aiden says as he keeps as close as he can in that five foot range, even if it means hugging her force field while in the air. "If you need to save the world you can ask for help. There are people here who can and will help you. All you have to do is trust us." He says trying to press his emotional control on her to help her feel calm.
Kai grins as his attack crashes against the field and rocks Tabitha, he starts to prepare another attack when she starts with the fire again, starting to back away again he forms another ball, the throws it at the field again as he continues to move to a safe distance from the fire.
Vinny picks up the pace once she starts attacking again, water continues to gurgle up out of the drains as he gathers as much as he can control for what's to come. When Vance keeps the bistro from being set ablaze he give the man a nod "She's got power, but no skill with it. Ya can't go at her head-on. It's like dealin' with a kid with a bloody bazooka." For the moment he doesn't act, just watching Aiden trying to talk her down.
Tabitha grits her teeth, and shakes her head as Aiden talks to her. "Yes I do," she replies, letting her hands hover at her sides and the flames go unused for the moment. "Yes I do. Only I can do this. Timeslip told me, and Iron Man confirmed it. I'm the only one who's immune. You're infected. You're sick. You're *all* sick! So was I, but I'm immune now. My powers made me immune… so I have to save everyone. But that one, down there… he's not infected. He's *one of them.*" She pauses, and holds out her hands, letting the fire consume her entire body once more. "I have to stop him!" She turns, and unleashes a torrent of fire down towards the street, aiming for the Bistro, the cars in front of it, the buildings beside it; everything.
Hoping she is not referring to him but presuming that she is, Vance mustering up strength to stop the blast at its source. While the heat may go through he hopes erecting the blast only a few feet in front of Tabitha will stop it and send it back or at least halt some of it. "Kai! Vinny! Forget her and work in conjunction to put out the fires!"
"No, you're not the only one." Aiden says trying to calm her. "You might have to save everyone but you don't have to do it alone." Then as the fire hits the Bistro, his place of work and the place he ferried people to safety he cries out an angry "Noooo!" He then turns to Tabitha, his tattoos bright with red and yellow. "Those people in there are innocent people, you can't save the world by killing everyone!" He says changing gears from calm to start trying to make her feel guilt and shame.
Kai shakes his head keeping his hood mostly covering his face, he doesn't do fire, at all, his involvement here goes as far as trying to stop Tabitha but that's where it end, with his attacks having no effect he figures the best thing to do is step out of the battle field and out of the way.
Vinny was already moving when she started babbeling about infection. As the fire blast shoots out to try and engulf the bistro and surrounding area he meets it with a blast of his own, nearly 1000 gallons of water surges forward like a geyser to meet the oncoming fire, the street errupting in steam as the two elements collide. "I'm not gonna be able to keep this up for long without a more constant supply. So someone better either break open a fire Hydrant or know down her bloody shield so I can drop her!"
Tabitha shrieks out loud as she's overcome by a surge of guilt. "Noooo!" she wails, as she carries herself up higher into the air. "I have to… I have to! Iron Man told me I have to! I… I… Have to stop him!" She grits her teeth, and the next telekinetic bolt she fires lances through the air towards Aiden. She wails again, scrubbing at her face with burning hands. "Goddamn you all!" she shrieks. She comes to rest on the corner of a building, several stories above the street level. Six spheres spring into view around her again, orbiting lazily around her, while the few rooms beneath the rat explode into fire. "You should all just run away!" she shouts.
The Bistro, thanks to the efforts of Vinny and Vance, is wholly safe… at least for the moment.
With the fire ended for now Vance shouts Kai a disappointed look as he flies up a bit. Vance then ponders, "You control water do you think you can control the water in her body. We all have water in our bodies." He wipes away the blood coming from his nose as he hovers a bit a safe distance from Tabitha eyeing the spheres in an attempt to react to wherever they may go.
Aiden is trying to do what he can without resorting to violence but it seems to backfire on him as the telekinetic bolt is fire and strikes him full on. The force sends him back and down as he slams into the street below. If the telekinetic blast didn't knock him out the connection with the pavement did as he lies there unconscious, his tattoos fading to a neutral colour.
Vinny grits his teeth as the building bursts into flames "Not again.. I still haven't recovered from tha last time. I don't have tha strength to put out tha whole blasted town with her having a damn flamin' coniption." He looks to Vance and shakes his head "Never learned that trick, never even considered it." Then to Aiden as he's taken down. He sees Kai falling back and swallows "God I never wanted it ta come ta this.. but I don't see any other choice." He reaches into an inside pocket of his vest and produces a plastic inhaler, he'd been saving this for an emergency and this definately qualifies.
Standing where she is, Tabitha has the perfect shot at the Bistro below; with fire or telekinesis or psychic orbs, she ought to be attacking, pressing for the victory. But the wail of sirens can be heard; at least to Vinny and Vance, they can. Tabitha instead sees a wave of dark, demonic looking helicopters arriving over the rooftops; helicopters packed with monstrous abominations, courtesy of Mindbender, and so it is time to retreat. "Damnit!" she shouts, as she rises up into the air, still coping with the stab of guilt that Aiden left her with. "Goddamnit… AAUGH!" She launches herself upwards, and discarding fire and orbs for the time being, she turns and rockets away, pushing herself to Vance's own top speed and ducking down between buildings, to make her getaway just above street level and out of view.
Vinny watches her take off and with a shudder pockets the inhaler again. He turns his gaze on a nearby fire Hydrant, it shudders then breaks off shooting into the air and releasing a torrent of water. His eyes glow bright as he takes control of the surging water and begins directing it into the burning building to put out the fires.
As Tabitha flees the scene, Vance looks to Vinny, "Well whatever you were about to do. Doesn't need to be done. Rest. The authorities are on their way and I will deal with them and the civilians." Noting the inhaler and giving Vinny a raised eyebrow, Vance flies over to assist any hurt civilians.
Vinny finishes doing what he can before the cops and firefighters arrive, then makes himself scarce before questions can be asked. Heading back to his apartment he thinks over what has happened, and what he almost did.. and what he still may yet have to do.
~ Fin ~
