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Summary: Daisuke is out on orders from Sinister, Shatterstar, Gael and Chezlie try to stop him. Magneto arrives too late.
Date: March 11, 2010
The Sounds of the Changed
Rating: R
NYC - Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a residential and shopping area of Manhattan. The neighborhood is upscale and home to the richer residents of New York City. Row houses line the streets in-between the more commercial buildings of the city. Upscale restaurants, clothing and jewelry stores can be found on the Upper West Side.
The alarms are blaring loudly in the street and there is shattered glass and twisted steel everywhere. From cars, windows and even a fire escape stair well. People are running in panic and there's a man with his wife and child across scrambling outside of a small local pharmacy: Rosenblum's Pharmacy and the man is yelling at someone inside it appears.
Staying in the school for such a long time makes for a good amount of times to play games. But with that time, games get old. So, in a trek to get new entertainment, Kael and Chelzie were at the game store. When the alarms blare, the games in Kael's hands are dropped as he runs outside and over towards the Pharmacy. Just what is going on over there!
Ben has just gotten off work, and as such is just wearing a black t-shirt and slacks. Beneath it, though, lately… he has taken to wearing a generic uniform. As he hears the alarms blaring, he turns down the street in the direction of it. Ever since his memories have returned, he's been itching to get involved in something. He's not quite ready to rejoin the school as a whole, or any of the teams related to it, but he misses the workouts and the flat out fun of getting involved in things. He begins moving very quickly towards the sound, not even getting winded at his fastest speed. With all the people in the area, he can't get a good view, so he takes a running leap to land atop a light pole and look from a higher vantage point, tattooed eye glowing mildly as he unzips his bag.
Chezlie isn't too familiar with most games, having grown up quite a sheltered life in rural Utah, so it's nice to have someone around to help show her the ropes. She'd hate to admit it, but the great variety and various systems has her utterly confused. The sound of the alarm grabs her attention just as fast as Kael's, the one game she was looking over quickly placed back in its place as she hurry's outside just behind the heels of the other student.
In side the pharmacy is Daisuke, dressed in a black body suit that covers him from the neck down with a diagonal white lined pattern across the arms and chest. He's standing behind the counter putting various percription items and other medical supplies into a backpack. He seems focused on his work, not really caring about anyone who is in the area.
Kael heads closer to the pharmacy. The sight of Daisuke making his hands clench in anger, his hair flaring white. "Chelzie. Hit your panic button." Kael presses his own as well, that should get the school's attention as he heads into the pharmacy. "Howl!" A loud yell accompanied by a windblast, aiming right for the wall next to the mutant.
Ben doesn't recognize the face behind the pharmacy, but does a forward flip to land right at the front of the shop, swords being drawn out as the shirt is removed. The uniform beneath it is the standard blue and yellow of someone who is or has been related to the X in some form or fashion. "You do realize that people need what's in this pharmacy to live, right?" He asks, grinning brightly, as the swords remain no more than long daggers at the moment, angled back away from Dai. He looks to the kid that comes up. "Be careful. This doesn't look that pretty." He offers, swords seeming to hum with a life of their own.
Chezlie nods silently, quick to do as Kael has just instructed her as she tries to keep her nervous glance on the intruder inside the pharmacy. She's meet Daisuke of course, but considering her little time attending the institute, it's no surprise she doesn't know much about him. "That's Daisuke, right?" She asks Kael just as her attention is stolen by the man, just landing from a forward flip in front of the store. She always heard trouble seems to follow most of the students at Xavier's, guess today might be her first time experiencing it!
Daisuke doesn't move to turn around until there's a windblast that hits the wall next to him, causing various products to tumble to the ground. He looks at the three and just looks at the swords. He doesn't say anything but he looks sort of bored. He opens up his mouth, then closes it, putting the backpack over his shoulders, before looking at Ben and letting out a sonic scream at him. He's in his way, and annoying, so there for, he must go.
Kael lets out a grumble. He lashes an arm out at Daisuke, as a direction aide. A wall of wind bursting up into existance in front of the sound mutant. "Daisuke! Why're you doing this!" Partially out of desperation, and out of rage as he's doing this. His other hand clenches, the hand pointing towards the wall lowering back down to his side.
The blast hits Ben dead center and knocks him backwards into the pole he just leapt from. There's a loud clang and he winces. There was a minor crack, but Ben's not letting it show. He glares and steps forward. "Ok, kids. If you know who he is, then you also know what's been going on at the school. Kid gloves don't need to be in place. He's messed up in the head. Trust me. You can't fix that by pleading. Gotta just do what you can to try to keep yourselves safe." He pulls his swords back into place and lengthens them. "You won't catch me like that again." He says, grinning as he wipes a hand across his face and begins moving.
Moving with a fluidity that could almost only be associated with water, Chezlie steps towards the building, opposite side of the sword wielding man. She's quick to shrug off her brown jacket, leaving her standing in a tank top and jeans, the back having been modified as to leave her flesh mostly exposed, all of it covered in an intricate waterfall tattoo with two smallish swords woven in at the sides. She nods as the strange man instructs them not to plead with the other kid, which in a way is a relief, not really having known quite what to say. She pulls both arms up, crooked at the elbows as her hands end near the handles of the tattoo swords on her back, where blue, blue, translucent copies pull free from her flesh and into her hands. They're small in size, being just a little bit shorter than the length of her small back. "I'll try to get his attention!" She shouts out for both of the others to hear before taking a couple cautious steps forward - probably a big mistake.
"Why not?" Daisuke responds, his voice barely above a whisper as he talks. He doesn't seem to show any recognition or care for Kael at the moment. He's just some kid whose being a bother. So is Ben and those swords, well, he'll just keep an eye on him since Chezlie is successful with the distraction. He makes a barrier in front of him made of sound and then pushes if forward intended to slam into Chelzie. It's about seven feet high and five feet wide and it will be like getting hit with a moving wall.
With the words from Ben, and the fact that Daisuke is ignoring him; Kael just lets out a low growl. Winds whipping about him once more, his gaze flicking towards Chezlie before he whips a hand out towards her. Sending a strong loose blast of wind to try and knock her out of the way of it. "Fine then." He looks back at Daisuke, sending a few softball sized windblasts towards the mutant. Aiming for the torso mainly.
Ben takes a fast run, reaching his sword out to slide it across the backpack. He's trying to get the drugs separated from the man. AFter all, if he doesn't have a working backpack, he can't carry more than a few handfuls. Of course, that'll probably tick off the altered mutant. "Gotta love Sinister's mind manipulations."
With perhaps a little more training, Chezlie would have easily dodged that moving wall of sound, but luckily Kael either realized this or just felt pushing her out of the way was the best move. She flings off to the side, just barely getting out of the way from the sonic wall, and goes crashing down into the sidewalk. Sure it hurt, but things could have been much worse than receiving a couple small scraps to her elbows. "Thanks for the save!" She shouts out while picking herself back up to her feet, crouching down a little while keeping her sight narrowed in on Dai, preparing herself to rush in should the opportunity present itself.
Daisuke turns on Kael and that gives Ben the edge to slice open the backpack and pills, needles, gauze and other products spill out. All this does is make Daisuke angry. "Mr. Sinister gave me a job, I won't fail him." He says with a whisper, as he turns to Kael surrounds him with solid sound, he's attempting to grab him and hold his entire body in a cylinder of sound from torso to legs, pinning his arms to his side.
Kael lets out a yell as he's wrapped in a cylinder of sound, and he starts to struggle against it. "You really think I need my arms?!" yells the aerokinetic as windblasts just launch towards the sound user. And this time, Kael's going dirty with a few blasts. Aiming for a spot where all guys would basically become falsettos. It's a dirty shot, but Kael's angry. Though with anger, he's also going to probably miss. Or be off target.
When the kid's endangered, Ben growls, throwing one of his swords at the sonic mutant. He's sending it flying, hard, butt first. The nice thing about the swords, they are designed with him in mind. If it hits, it should come flyingback towards him afterwards, if he threw it right. Otherwise, he still has the other. After throwing the one, he comes dashing low with the other. "Leave the kids alone."
"Shit." Chezlie mutters, catching Kael's predicament out of the corner of her eye. Hoping that sound entrapment and the other guy having just slashed the backpack are both enough to keep Dai's concentration away from her. "Might have a way to free you Kael." She says just before charging forward with a burst of speed, her jaw clenched shut as she puts just enough concentration into turning her blades dull, giving them the form of a wooden practice sword. As she nears the Sinister influenced teen, she swings with her left arm towards his head, hoping to at least stun him for a couple seconds. Once the thrown sword is noticed, she hesitates in hopes not to get hit by it, making her aim not quite as perfect as hoped.
Not being himself and being reprogrammed, so to speak, for this, his reaction times are a bit quick. He's able to dodge the wind blasts form Kael and moves to pull Kale in front of him so that he uses him as a shield. He's trying to use Kael to block Ben's attack. Unfortunately he can't use Kael to block both incoming attacks and he's hit by Chezlie's sword, causing him to let go of Kael.
Kael's eyes go wide with the fact that he's being used as a meat shield. "Mother fucker!" A windblast slams into the sword, knocking it off target before he's dropped to the ground, rolling away. The aerokinetic pants as he gets up. Wind whipping around him once more as he keeps an eye on Daisuke. "Thanks, Chez."
"Shit." Ben says simply as he makes a running jump to get at his sword, rather than let it hit the kid. But as the wind blast knocks it aside, he dodges for it. "Get behind me kids, I'm gonna do something big, and I don't wanna risk hurting either of you." He says, as he aims and points both swords at Daisuke, with a glare. HE's obviously just a LEETLE BEET TEECKED off.
There's a huge old grin spread across Chezlie's lips as she briefly glows in her success in freeing Kael. The moment only lasts a couple seconds before she quickly moves towards aerokinetic. "No problem. You scratched my back earlier, so I figured I owed ya." She gestures to him to follow her as she heads behind the guy with the swords, listening to his advice and getting out of the way.
"Something big?" Daisuke whispers, not once has he spoken above a whisper. "Like this?" He says as he makes a desperate move and inhales before letting out a scream, letting it go for as long as possible. It's long, loud and powerful. Enough to break bones of anyone in it's path. Glass in the area shatters, pavement is thrown up as he puts quite a bit of force behind it.
Kael covers his ears as he stumbles backwards away towards Ben, an eye closed due to the volume and he glares back at Daisuke. Someone's doing a desperate move? Kael keeps his gaze locked on Dai's mouth before he sends a windblast. Aimed right for his mouth. "Shut. Up." grunts out the aerokinetic.
Hearing the warning, the warrior's instinct kicks in and Ben dances to the side at his top speed before releasing the blast of energy he was storing in his sword. There is no controlling the level, it only comes out in one way. That way… is very strong and very dangerous. He's making sure though, when he fires it, that he's not aiming in a way that the kids will get hit if Dai does happen to miss. Of course, his ears are ringing quite loudly, and he'll probably be deaf for a few minutes. Less than the kids.
Chezlie isn't quite as aware as Ben is and doesn't begin to move in a enough time to get fully out of the way of the sonic blast as it skims across her right shoulder. "Hell!" She screams, dropping both swords as she drops down to her knees, right hand clutching at her left shoulder. She's wincing painfully from both the sound of the sonic blast and her recently injured shoulder.
Daisuke just let out a sonic blast that was quite powerful so he doesn't have time to get a shield up or get out of the way. He's knocked back quite a bit. Bones are broken, and it hurts, but Daisuke still seems to keep on going. "You." He whispers to Chezlie. "Protect me." He says using his sonics in a sort of hypnotic voice, hoping that it works so that he makes his way over to grab what he can that fell out of the bag. "And you." He whispers to Kael. He lets out a thrum and forms a couple of spikes out of sonics and fires them off at KAel hoping to hit him with at least one.
Kael takes a step back as the spikes fire at him and he drops down to one knee. A swirl of winds wrapping around him as a dome forms around him. Though one of the spikes makes it through the winds, slamming into Kael's side. Causing the dome to explode outwards as the aerokinetic goes to grasp at the spike. Nearly falling onto his side in pain.
Ben is a little winded, but he's far from down. He recovers quickly., He just can't let another of those blasts out again or he'll be useless. Seeing the Sinister taint in action makes him glad that he's only got Mojo to deal with in his life. But that's just as bad in it's own way. He's got a new tactic now, He's aiming to try to chop (with sword butt and hand, not with blade) at Dai's throad. Vocal chord injuries are reparable. Death is not.
There's something about the words spoken by Daisuke this time around that really catches Chezlie's attention, the soft, almost mantra like repetition in her mind of 'protect me." Despite her injured shoulder, both swords are picked back up as her attention is narrowed in on Ben, her steps slowly taking her in his direction as her left arm sways lightly, hanging lifelessly at her side.
Daisuke is relying on Chezlie to protect him right now and see her step forward, well that works for him. He lets out a thrum with his voice and puts a shield in front of himself and Ben, trying to block the shot, he's not about to let someone take away his power. Not again. He needs to gather what was dropped and get out, and quickly.
Kael pants heavily as he puts a hand over the wound, and the winds around the area just pick up. Blowing in every which way they can. Scattering whatever Daisuke is going for just using gusts of wind. He can't form anything else, but even with using winds to gust around. There's only really enough energy in the teen for a several seconds of the heavy wind. After that, he just thuds onto the ground, depleted of energy.
A warrior born and bred doesn't give up and doesn't surrender. Thus, Ben… now fully in Shatterstar mode, starts striking at the shield, hard and fast. He's pounding away, heedless of what's going on with the others around him. He has a goal, and he will see it through.
Chezlie's left arm still hangs motionless at her side, fingers clutched around the hilt of the sword, shoulder broken from the earlier attack she had taken. She begins to pick up pace with her right arm poised to strike at Ben, the sound of her foot steps easily being drowned out by all the other commotion happening around them. She's still under the hypnotic direction of Daisuke, lunging forward with glazed eyes as the swing of her second sword, still blunted from her earlier concentration, towards the back of his head. Nothing else seems to matter to her except this one action to protect.
The attacks are weaking his field and Daisuke can tell he doesn't have much time to spare. Screw the supplies, he's getting back to saftey. He presses something on his shoulder and vanishes, which also breaks Chezlie's hypnosis and the shield that Ben was pounding on. He doesn't say a word as he vanishes.
Kael's breathing is still there and steady. But, well. He's losing blood.
As Dai vanishes, Ben falls to the ground, having been leaning against the shield. Fortunately, it keeps him from being knocked in the head by the sword swung by the teenager. "Shit. Well, at least he's gone and the kids are alive." He says, moving to pick himself up from the ground.
The instant Daisuke disappears, a white-haired man striding through the lobby of an upscale hotel snaps his head up. His lips peel away from his teeth and he hisses, "ESSEX." Then he's out the door and into the sky, leaving a swath of bystanders behind his wondering if they really saw that…
Magneto arrives at the site mere moments later, having changed his outfit mid-flight to his familiar red and purple. He pauses a few dozen feet up, taking a moment to assess the situation.
It's in the middle of the swing that Dai vanishes and Chezlie finds herself released from the hypnosis, the pain of her broken shoulder suddenly screaming back to her. She falls back down to her knees with awhimper , both swords let loose as they fall to the ground before her. She's trying to hold back the flood gate of tears waiting to erupt. Her head crooks to the side as her eyes fall across the unconscious, bleeding Kael. "Um, sir?" She asks to the man she just recently was aiming to knock out. "I don't think my friend is doing so well. Probably needs help, /now/."
"Calling someone." Ben says simply, breathing heavily. Magneto may actually recognize him as Shatterstar, despite the fact that he's changed personality quite a bit. He dials Kenta. AFter all, it's the only digits other than Jean-Paul's that he has from the mansion.
No Essex. No Essex puppets, either. Magneto is officially Not Pleased. He regards the tableau below him and then descends, the cloak billowing. "Shatterstar," he says. He doesn't recognize the other two, but they're of an age to be students… "What happened here?" As he descends, a small whirlwind of metal objects coalesces around the bleeding Kael. "I take it that Mr. Sinister is at the root of this problem."
"Sinister infected child tried to rob the pharmacy. Stopped him from taking anything, but not before he hurt someone. We need to get them to treatment." He says before realizing… who Magneto is. Ben blinks. "Sorry. I'm not quite the Shatterstar you knew, but close enough. Sinister is behind everything lately, according to my friend up there." He says with a nod. "I need to start hunting, apparently." He grumbles a little.
Chezlie nods, moving slow to bend down and pick up one of her swords laying across the ground, using her only good arm to hold it near her back, letting her skin re-absorb it. This is repeated with the second sword until both only remain as part of the piece tattooed across her back. "Thanks." is replied as the little teen slowly begins to make her way towards Kael, wincing more and more with each step. She pauses with the arrival of Magneto, not quite sure exactly who he is, but putting it together that he probably knows the man that still remains unknown to her. She holds her tongue for now.
The metallic whirlwind around Kael metamorphoses into a many-tentacled … thing … that wraps itself around the bleeding boy and lifts him off the ground. "A pharmacy? Indeed." Rather low-class for Essex, which has implications that will need to be examined. Meanwhile… he looks around at Chezlie and Ben, eyes glinting inside his helmet. "Tell me who you are. Are you students, and if so, which institution do you attend?" His attention focuses on Chezlie. "Miss. You are injured. Where, and how badly?"
"They knew the boy. I've called the mansion. The children are theirs." Ben says, wearing a half of an X-costume himself, though he currently holds no team allegiance. "Can you get them to some sort of safety and treatment? I'm afraid it doesn't fit my power-abilities, and I have to find out some things." He says simply. And as he used to beknown for doing… vanishes.
"My… my name is Chezlie, sir." The little dark haired teen stutters at first, her eyes almost instinctively lowering in the presence of an authority figure, or at least one that appears that way hovering over head. "I'm attending at Xavier's institute." There's a little reluctance in her voice, not knowing exactly who it is that will be heading back to the academy with them. Of course Kael is bleeding to death, so what more harm could it cause? "My shoulder." The words come out more as a whimper as her right hand moves towards the injured left shoulder. "I think it might be broken."
Kael is rather limp when Magneto picks him up. His phone nearly falls out of his pocket, but the metal tentacles stop it. He only lets out a grunt as he's lifted, the hand pressing against the wound a bit harder due to being wrapped.
Magneto's lip peels back as Ben vanishes; he HATES that. But since the boy is already gone… He turns to the others. "Then we will go to the mansion, and now Chezlie is floating, too—thanks to metal attaching to the soles of her shoes, not that she's likely to know that is what is happening. A scarf of metallic threads, as fine as silk, but which pours through the fingers like water..materializes in front of her eyes and binds itself into a sling. "Put your arm in that," he orders. The tentacles on his whatsit..thing press more tightly around Kael's body as all three soar into the night sky.
Chezlie simply nods as she moves her arm into the metal sling waiting before her. There's really no room for words at this point, not quite sure what exactly is going on or how. Oh, she knows it's coming from the newly arrived gentleman, but that doesn't automatically bring understanding to the whole situation. So silently, she watches as the city begins to move beneath her as she's propelled into the sky.