Players: Emma, Robin, Vinny, and The New Mutant Order!
Summary: A robbery leads to an excuse for the NMO to addict another X-student… but adults intervene before it escalates.
Date: March 17, 2011
Log Title: Turned Up To Eleven
Rating: PG-13
NYC - Mutant Town
//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. //
It's finally spring in New York City and the nice weather brings out the residents of Mutant Town. Shop have their doors open to let in the fresh air and people are milling about having lunch or just shopping. A few kids play in the street. All seems normal in Mutant Town except for one small thing. In several business windows there signs with the words N.M.O with a red cirle crossed out over the words.
Robin turns a corner on the street, glancing by as she leaves the location of a guilty pleasure of hers that she only maintains while in the area. "Welp, it looks like it's gone. It was only a matter of time. Did you really think you were going to maintain that Ms. Pacman highscore? It was just a fluke." To say she's talking to herself is technically accurate, as she is walking with her puppet, Blank. Robin pauses for a moment and looks into one of the windows. "The heck?" She approaches one of the windows and starts to examine the sign, glancing up to try and see the storefront behind it.
From behind Robin comes a familiar but slightly intimidating voice, "The New Mutant Order… a group that seems to have propped itself up in the aftermath of police incident last month, Ms. Keen. Nothing more than young turks feeling the need to lash out against an authority they feel can no longer protect them." Stepping towards Robin is Emma Frost, dressed head to toe in white once more, a white fog coat that is open and revealing a pantsuit and low-slung heels. With a purse clutched over one shoulder, she uses the other hand to push back some of her straying blonde locks as she adds, "I noticed the sign when I came down for my monthly hair regimen." Lips curl into a bit of an impish grin as the woman says almost thoughtfully, "Beauty such as mine does not maintain itself solely by it's own merit."
Shouts are heard coming out of a little conveinence shop down the street before a man goes smashing through the window flying into the street. The man is obviously a mutant by the squid like tenticles coming off of his chin and the slits in his neck that look like they could be gills. A young girl in her twenties goes running out of the store yelling "Father!". Stepping through the broken glass of the store front to the street is a man wearing a Bart Simpson mask. "Now, you should have just given me the money from the register Squid Man." He says raising his arm and holding it palm first towards the man. Behind him a large anti-N.W.O. sign can be seen on the door.
"Oh, um, hiya Ms. Frost," says Robin, turning around quickly and rubbing her forehead slightly after being startled by the headmistress. "And, well, I think your efforts pay off. I'm kinda thinking of getting my hair done soon, and I might do it short, but I think that'd make me look to boyish." With idle chitchat complete, Robin looks back at the sign and says, "These people are dangerous. Oh! That reminds me." She puts down her bag, crouching over it as she starts to rifle through it. Once she grabs the inhaler, holding it in her palm, she stands and looks like she's about to say something when she's rudely interrupted by the crashing. "What was that?!"
Emma's white-face sunglasses are drawn down from her eyes to look at the scene with the poor store owner, and there's a certain and slight drop of her shoulders as she holds out a hand to forestall Robin, "Ms. Keen… please stay here a moment…" And then with a fluid turn she moves towards the incident in question. She doesn't speak, but the man in the Bart Simpson mask can suddenly feel a crushing presence around him as Emma severs his link from his motor neurons to his spinal column temporarily, rendering him paralyzed, and then her voice comes clear for the three people in conflict, "Now… if I might… while this whole using a tired cliche to mask another tired cliche is SO amusing for the people watching and filming from the safety of their homes… I am not so amused."
Bart Simpson man just stands there unmoving as if a statue. He makes a few noises of panic as he notices he can't even move. The father and daughter stand up but it's obvious that the squid man is badly injured with a broken arm and many cuts and bruises. "I wasn't hired for this." Grumbles the man behind the mask in a scared voice. The daugher look at Emma with relief on her face. "Thank you so much Ma'am."
Robin raises her hands in the air after Emma has left, and approaches using Blank since it's generally safer, just to see what's happening. Even in her puppet control position, she keeps the inhaler between her fingers, but now it's more visible than it was previously.
Using that sentence, Emma quickly moves herself in mentally and grabs onto any informatio tied to 'I wasn't hired for this…' Faces, conversations, any references for use for later. As almost a courtesy, she uses another chunk of her mental presence to lessen any shock and dull the pain for the poor squid-faced man on the ground as she nods to the young lady, "A pleasure… as always. I would suggest you call the police. With the amount of persons here who do not appreciate this New Mutant Order… I fear I will have to protect this poor fool from the mob." Now that the predominant threat is passed, she motions for Robin, "Ms. Keen.. would you come and help this man back into his shop… he has a fracture in his forearm, and another in his hand."
What Emma gets is flashes of phone calls, exhange of money under public bathroom stalls for this mutant to 'rob' a store in Mutant Town and at the right time the New Mutant Order would come in and save the day. A staged even to make it look like they were protecting people. There was also the possibility for more work for Lawrence Curry, the name of the man behind the mask. The young woman nods to Emma and rushes inside to start calling the police and an ambluence.
Off to the side one of the spectators might seem familar to Robin, the speedster from the other night. One of the members of the New Mutant Order. Spotting the canister in her hands he rushes forward to her and stops, putting his hand on hers. For Robyn this all happens fairly quickly but it's slow enough to be noticed. "Welcome to the New Mutant Order." He whispers in her ear before directing his hand to move hers with the canister so that a stead stream of the vapor leaks out into the air by Robin's face.
While she is about to use Blank to follow Emma's orders, Robin gets directed by the vapour that leaks into her face. She gasps and then stumbles back, looking at the canister for just a split second before it takes effect. She rubs under her nose once and laughs softly, idly tucking the canister back away, "Actually… that's not bad…" In the meantime, Blank shifts colours, moving through a rainbow effect before eventually settling on red, and the puppet stops in its path. Voice projected through the puppet, Blank says in an soft but echoing voice, "I don't think I will."
There is a microsecond look of surprise, shock, and then calculated coldness that crosses Emma Frost's face when the otherwise mute psychic manifestation speaks. Moving to her full height, she releases her hold on Mr. Curry by sending a command into him that drops him into a sleep cycle, and releases the neuron 'busy signal'… leaving him to collapse unconscious on the ground. Staring at the red puppet, and then to it's mistress for a moment, she immediately sends out a passive mental probe, sweeping the entire area with a 'ping' checking for any signs of abherrant thoughts, or minds of specific intent before replying to Blank, "Now now… we should not be impolite in public. We do have an image to consider." But as a matter of caution, she shifts the perception of herself one foot to the right and slightly forwards, close by the broken window.
Lawrence Curry falls to the ground unconscious in a heap and by now quite the crowd has gathered around the area watching with some interest. The speedster by Robin runs off and does his best to mingle with the crowd, watching to see how events unfold with this. By Robin's feet a small square piece of paper touches the ground and lands there.
Robin picks up her bag and the piece of paper. She throws the bag over her shoulder and reads the piece of paper as she starts to walk from the scene. Blank doesn't move from her location, though, and the red puppet in the shop seems to only have residual information from Robin's mind projected into it. "Image," echoes the puppet, "Makes sense that you would be so concerned." The puppet glances back the people there. "I just don't have time. I feel so strong." The puppet looks at its hands. "I need to know what I can do." The puppet floats up off the ground lightly and, even featureless as it is, seems almost to grin as it looks out to the gathering crowd.
Closing her eyes begin the white-lens sunglasses for a moment, Emma steels herself with a breath, and then subtly helps the mutant shop owner on the ground rise and head inside, a slightly glassy stare in his eyes as she directs his movements past the pain for a moment. Freeing that part of her mind for use once more, she removes the glasses so that her eyes are in full view, "Ms. Keen… both of you. Unless you are willing to suffer for learning just what -I- can do… I would heartily suggest coming back here right now." As if the emphasize the point, she removes her handbag and jacket, letting her X-man uniform show rather plainly, her lips pursed now in concentration as she uses her psi-tech imbedded in her own phone to place a call to campus security, putting a warning notice about this incident on file.
The crowd stays strong around the small convenience shop with a broken front window. There's glass in the street and the sound of sirens in the distance. Several shops sport signs that have the letters N.M.O crossed over in a big red circle. There's a man lying unconscious in front of the shop wearing a Bart Simpsons mask. The piece of paper Robin picks up just has one sentence on it 'Ask for Kyle'. The daughter of the convenience shop owner comes out again to thank Emma. "Thank you again so much Ma'am. I think my father will be fine. Things have been getting worse around here with this new…New Mutant Order." She makes a face as she's not happy with the idea of the group.
Vinny emerges from Thompson Square Park, the hybrid mutant singing to himself as he looks up and down the street. "Waltzin' Matilda Waltzin' matilda won't you come.." he pauses as he spots the storefront and the gathering crowd. "What the bloody 'ell is goin' on over there?" He moves towards the disturbance in his usual waddling gait, frowning a bit at the NMO signs "Ah.. these wankers again.."
Synched together, Robin and Blank simultaneously says, "No." Robin crumples the paper and puts it in her jacket pocket as she continues walking down the street. "I can do what I want to." The puppet flies straight up, breaking through the roof as it does so, the material now yielding more easily to the more powerful puppet's form.
Emma's eyes trail to Vinny a moment, and her mind passes through his quickly, assessing intent or otherwise… a passive search, and nothing invasive enough to be painful or detected unless the Platypus man is a psychic himself. Then she says in her usual prim Bostonian accent, "Sir, if you would be so kind as to escort this nice young girl back inside…" Nodding to the young lady in acknowledgement of thanks to things, her mind lashes out, both directions at once on the puppet and puppetmaster. But there's an almost immediate rebuff from the raw power from both. Pushing herself in harder, this time Blank is suddenly seized in a mental construct in the form of a giant clawed-hand fist that would take someone knowing the astral plan to see properly. It is squeezed, horribly tight, while at the same time, another mental 'hand' grips onto Robin, attempting to arrest her movement, "I warned you Ms. Keen… I -am- still and will always be the White Queen."
There's a bunch of murmurs from the crowd as they watch Blank crash through the roof of the building and some people start to scurry off back home. Others's stay and watch and a few of the guys in the crowd seem to be wearing matching red shirts, long black jackets and black jeans but they're not standing next to eachother. As Robin starts to walk off the crowd moves to get out of her way, that is until Emma speaks. People are frozen in curiosity and fear waiting to see what happens next.
Vinny's mind is easy enough to scan, having had no psychic defense training. His thoughts are curiousity and mild annoyance, which turn more agressive and alert as the puppet crashes through the roof. He moves towards the shop faster as his eyes begin to glow and turn a solid blue color, a shudder ripples through the pavement as a manhole cover is pushed up and off and a large column of water from the storm drains rises out of it at the call of the Hydrokinetic. It rises to a height of nearly 8ft and sways like a large serpent as Vinny looks over the scene. "Bloody wonderfull, NMO poser lookin ta start trouble mabye.."
"Augh!" says Robin and Blank, still vocally synched, as both are stopped in their tracks. "Hehe," laughs the puppet again, flashing through rainbow colours again as it tries to struggle against the psychic hold. "I'd say I'm Blank of Many Colours, but I guess that'd be admitting defeat." The puppet vanishes from its location, though, and teleports back near Robin, in order to break out of the hold as well as defend its puppeteer. Robin pushes her hands out, to send the puppet forward at Vinny from an unexpected direction, the puppet moving far faster than it tends to, in order to take a swing at the platypus. "You shouldn't have got involved," the puppets echoing voice says.
"Damnable…" Slips from the woman's alabaster lips as the puppet slips the astral grip and then reappears where it wills. Her 'hand' on Robin remains intact however, and she looks to her sudden team-mate, saying in a slightly more polite tone, "Emma Frost, Headmistress of Xavier School… and that girl is one of my students. She has been exposed to something, and I am trying to contain it. I do ask you not hurt her." Spoken as if the pair were having lunch, or discussing something of almost casual import before she focuses back in on Robin, this time not on the active mind, but reading her body, trying to locate and shutdown the effects of whatever has happened, "Ms. Keen… this behavior will not stand. You are under the influence of something… it is affecting your powers and your judgement. Stand down… you are not a violent person, nor are you prone to this kind of behavior. Think… do not let whatever this is cloud your mind and your reasonable senses."
Vinny grits his teeth, the direction might be unexpected but his natural sense of electrolocation picks up the puppet's approach as it's movement distorts the local electrical fields. Thrusting one hand towards the oncoming blank a Jet of water fires from the column like a fire hose to intercept it with about 300 pounds of force behind the blast. "Shiela, yer tearin' up the town I call home… not gonna stand by and just watch. Get ready fer a whoopin'" He nods at Emma's words and turns to fully face the puppet "Fine, you talk sense inta yer pupil, me'n Pinnochio here are gonna do a little Waltzin' Matilda…"
Robin struggles somewhat in order to try and slide out of the psychic grip while she replies to Emma, "No, you're wrong, everything is finally clear now! It makes sense! I'm chosen." She's definitely high. Robin flails her arms a bit more as Blank crashes back into concrete, before standing up and pushing through the water, taking deliberate steps as it does so, but moving at a pace that suggests its unusually strong. As Blank moves, the puppet moves through rainbow colours.
Emma replies wryly, "Yes… I am sure you were…" And with a sad shake of her head, the blonde-haired woman moves away from where the physical confrontation is beginning and shifts herself to approach the struggling girl before adding, "I hope your new friend Kyle is listening and watching, Ms. Keen… because I am about to show you.. and them… the harsh reality of your true situation…" And with that, she sends a lance into Robin's brain… not into the conscious mind, but the amygdalae and it's current nightmare reactions to what is happening. What she does next is best considered a Bipolar Shift. Robin is high on line… Emma now is going to bring that world crashing down over her like a proverbial ton of bricks. Her mental fingers poised to do this, the image the world fades to white, as Robin's mental presence 'hears' the drawing of the hammer of a trigger, and from 'behind' it the mental voice says, «Robin Keen… you will forgive me. Once the migraine is over.» *BANG* A bullet right to the ego.
Vinny grits his teeth as Blank begins to push back agaist his water blast. With his full attention now on the puppet and since it's not a living thing he is no longer pulling his punches. Thrusting both hands towards the oncoming figure the entire water column leaps from the manhole and nearly 500 gallons of water come crashing down onto the figure as it strugles against his previous blast which abruptly ends. "Surf's up Lambchop!" The force of the impact is now close to 1000 pounds, the pavement beneath the doll cracks and small chunks of sidewalk are carried several feet away as the wave dissapates. Though vinny is already calling the water back towards himself.
Robin puts her hands up to her head and says, "No no no no no no!" when her amygdala is influenced and her fears rise to a boil, and then she clutches her head for a moment before seeming to just turn 'off', head slumping forward into her hands. "Nooo…" The effect on Robin extends out towards Blank, who was only able to stand still with this much higher pressure, but somehow manages to remain in place. But when Robin slumps, so does the puppet, and Blank falls to the ground in a limp position.
Approaching at a brisk gait as her assault happens, Emma is there to catch Robin and help lower her to the floor, watching the puppet go limp and return to it's default state before nodding once to Vinny. The woman smiles a bit, and says in a voice enough to be heard, "Thank you… very much. I do apologize for your being drug into this… but it seems someone has dosed her with some kind of drug that affects her mutant abilities, and her brain chemistry. I'm feeling an imbalance between her reasoning centers, her ego, and her fight or flight reflexes. As she was, she would have been a menace… which does not look well upon my school." Then more quietly to herself she mutters, "And now I owe someone else a new roof."
Vinny s eyes return to thier normal color as he huffs and puffs, not used to having to extert his powers that hard. He looks to Emma and gives a bit of a lopsided smile before nodding. "S'no problem Ma'am, just doin' my part ta help out around here. I been hearin' 'bout that drug, think those New Mutant Order wankers got somthin' ta do with the whole mess." His eyes turn blue again as he takes control of the water around him and flows it back down into the manhole, the flowing stream dragging the cover behind it to close the hole with a dull clunk. "Can't be leavin' a mess, somone could get hurt." He turns to look at Emma and smiles "So the great Emma Frost, well nice ta meet'cha Ma'am I'm Vincent Wilks. Course most folks just call me Vinny and if yer usin' those code-names every mutant seems ta have these days then I'm Outback."
There's a brief chuckle as Miss Frost picks up the limp form of her student, and then moves over towards where she dropped her coat and purse, which have mercifully been spared being soaked by the sewer water, "Yes, Mister Wilks… and while I am usually too busy with school matters to leave campus… this has drawn my attention. Many of our students come here to help, or to have a place outside of the school to find friends and relaxation… if this is occuring regularly… then strict measures will have to be taken. Can you assist once more? The puppet and Ms. Keen need to be moved to my car so they can be taken home." Sighing softly as she looks down at the young woman with a protective sense of regret, tinged with anger, heard in the strike of her heels on the pavement.
Vinny walks over in his usual waddling gait and looks to Robin. "Off the top'a my head I'd say yer lookin' at a form of genetic Amphetamine that singles out and intensifies an active X-gene in the user, while at the same time affectin' the centers'a the brain that control inhibitions and lessen the user's self-control, leavin' them more open ta usin' the enhanced power since any mental blocks that would have limited the power Psychologically have been dampened. Course I'm no Phsycologist but I'd think it's bringin' bit'a the superego to the forefront. Though you'd need a skilled Biochemist and a scholar on Mutant DNA ta be sure" Yes he just said that, though with an australian accent it was likely like listening to a redneck try to explain brain surgery. He waddles over to where Blank is and after giving it a curious prodding with one foot to make sure it's not going to jump up he gathers it up and takes it to the car.
One cultured eyebrow shoots up, but at the same time, the woman's lips purse as she walks with the man, listening to his breakdown of the affects, before saying, "Interesting… and where did you receive your degree in psychopharmacology?" The question does not sound derogatory, more conversational as she approaches a rare sight… an Aston Martin Vanquish. A monster of a sports car painted in a pristine silver-white, and showing no signs of dirt on it's body. The doors click open and the alarm beeps off as she moves within ten feet, "Please… if you'd be so kind."
Vinny nods and moves to open the door and wait for her to load in the unconcious robin. "Pop the trunk and I'll put this thing in it.." He smiles a bit at her previous question "Well mostly online degrees, didn't get out much once I got the bill and tail. Mostly Biology and ecology but I took a course on the progression of abarrent genetic evolution when I was studying my own condition. Plus I been readin' Hildegarde VonRegenleif's books on Mutation, mostly 'Cultural Effects of Evolutionary Mutations' an 'Descendents of the Gods: Similarities Between Classical Deities and Modern Mutants' big fan'a her work. As for the rest of it like I said it's an estimation off the top'a my head given what you described and what I've heard about town and seen with my own eyes. Might be way off but it's as good a theory as any until somone does a chemical breakdown of the substance and can determine it's origins and true properties."
Emma does something, or does nothing, and the back opens for Blank to be put in the trunk, while she gently lays out the girl in the passenger seat, before strapping her in, and engaging a secondary lock on it… so one Ms. Keen is not going anyplace soon. Once that's done, the woman approaches Vincent, and puts a gloved hand out to him, "Doctor Von Reigenlief is an instructor at our school… I am sure that if you asked, she would not mind a fan coming by. But now I have to get her back to school… and break a few traffic laws on the paw. A pleasure Mister Wilks. And my card." In her hand of course…
Vinny loads blank into the back and smiles as the card is offered. Taking it and quickly slipping it into a pocket of his vest he nods. "Been meanin' ta come by that school, lotta folks suggested it. Just been lookin' out for mutant town what with the corrupt cops and all lately, no time for a side trip. Was a pleasure to meet you Miss Frost and if you ever need a bit'a help I'm not hard ta find around here, kinda stand out." He waits for her to get in the car and drive off before heading back towards the back, humming to himself.
