Players:
Summary: Jordan goes to pick up something for Sinister, but gets interrupted.
Date: March 10, 2010
Who's the Villain?
Rating: R
Westchester - Turkey Hill Road
Leading away from the hustle and bustle of Salem Center, Turkey Hill Road turns into a long, winding, barely lit road leading to the more remote areas of Westchester. The road is surrounded by a thin, woodsy area, though there are a lot of smaller, family type homes.
Early evening off of Turkey Hill Road, many people are just returning home. One such family has been home for most of the evening. The home itself is rather nice, gated… pretty much private and protected. But, that doesn't stop a lot of things. Standing in front of the gates is a young man. He is completely white in color. Pure, brilliant white. Along with that, he's somewhat translucent, but that's hard to tell next to the stone of the wall around the home. He's dressed in a white outfit that trails off of one shoulder, baring it and his stomach. There are long trailing pieces of fabric from his shoulders, each ending in red as bright as fresh blood. One his back is a quiver-type device, just very very short.
The young man looks at the building before checking a piece of paper in his hand. Correct address. He's got the name. He tosses it on the wind before reaching a hand into the gate's mechanical operating system, which shorts out immediately. He looks again, tilting his head one more time. "Dr. Noonan…" He states to the button beside the gate. "You have a visitor. Sent by Mr. Sinister." He says with a laugh before walking through the closed gate.
A brunette walks down the streets, preferring to walk to get some exercise done instead of taking a cab. July, the brunette in question, grumbles, since she's looking for one of her classroom's colleagues' home, and apparently failing at it. They're supposed to work on a college project together, but, judging at how much she checks and re-checks what's written on a small piece of paper she's holding, looks like the girl isn't anywhere near the right address. "Damn… can't believe I got lost. Should have taken a cab, the driver would know where her place is…" she sighs, shaking her head, too focused on herself that she doesn't yet notice the translucent white guy on the other side of hte street yet.
The most efficient of ways that Robin could think of to search for Skyler (with the secondary goal of finding everyone else, of course) was just to send Blank out over and over. The puppet is, after all, much faster, stronger and quieter than she is. And here the puppet just so happens to be, searching. The blue humanoid figure is running at a very speedy pace, but stops upon seeing the unusual looking young man from a distance. This seems like it's worth checking out, and so Blank turns her path.
"…It's like we can't even go *anywhere* anymore without running into Jono," comes a miserable voice from down the road toward the mansion. Rashmi, stocking cap and scarf in place against the Massachussetts chill, holds tightly to Lucas' hand as the pair stroll toward Salem Center. "I mean, Robyn just wanted to be with his *parents* for a little bit… and even *then!*"
Lucas sighs, shrugging a little. "Sometimes bad things happen and there's nothin' you can do about it." He exhales, his breath making a little cloud before his mouth as it's born into the chilly air. "Ah want a Cinnabon."
"Well in fact, well I'll look at it this way, I mean technically our marriage is saved, Well this calls for a toast, so pour the champagne…", Cloud hasn't left the mansion for over a week so has headed out for a jog, hes dressed in a white t-shirt, pale blue jeans, red sneakers, a red lettermans jacket from his high school, has a two inch steel band around his wrist and has his earphones in. He jogs past Lucas and Rashmi not wanting to interupt their date.
As he waits for a moment, there's an angry scream that comes from the speaker. "I gave him everything I had months ago. Tell him to leave me and my family alone!"
The white young man laughs loudly into the speaker. "He knows you held out on him. And your family is home? Even better. Perhaps showing them what Sinister can create will convince you of the error of your ways." He reaches into the voice-box and it begins to crackle and pop under his fingers, shorting out completely. Afterwards, he walks through the closed gate. It's iron bars, so he can still be seen through it.
July grumbles a bit more on her way down the street when she can't help but hear what the white guy is saying. Rather loudly. That gives her pause for a moment, even if she thinks it's just a disagreement between two parties, but when she sees the other guy, who is nothing like a 'normal' guy, she frowns, and pockets her piece of paper, "Melody can wait…" she mutters to herself as she slowly slinks behind a tree, to watch that guy to see what he's going to do. Destroying private property, invasion of private property, and a probable B&O, from the looks of it. She looks around, quickly, to find a place to leave her clothes to change…
Blank stops as the white man steps through the gate and runs to approach him. The major problem of Robin using the puppet this way is that sometimes, it's best -not- to be silent. The puppet hops over the fence and then bangs on the bars to generate some kind of sounds, to try and get his attention. Robin can certainly recognize a crime happening.
"Cinnabon," Rashmi repeats with a small smile. "That sounds… wonderful. *Normal* and wonderful. Good, let—" Interrupted by the blank-faced, glowing puppet banging on the bars of the gate, the sight of a person made of light strolling toward the door, she makes a sound not unlike the whistle of a teakettle. "…Let's call it something to do *next* time… C'mon, Lucas…" With a heavy sigh, she picks up the pace, tugging on the blond's hand as she reorients herself toward the source of the commotion.
Lucas gets yanked along by Rahsmi, "Rash, wait!" But he's already in tow. "What are we supposed to do? Who's the good guy? Slow down!"
Cloud is also pretty good at spotting a crime in progress, after all his dad is a cop, he takes a deep breathe and sprints over towards the gates.
Hearing the beating on the gates, the man turns around. THe face may be quite well familiar to a lot of students around the mansion. Of course, it's Jordan. Solid white and see-through. Those two features are new, but it's still him. "Go away. Otherwise, you risk getting very injured." He says calmly before he grows a little larger and starts walking towards the house. A security officer steps out of a small building halfway up the driveway and starts coming down, gun drawn. He glares at the upcoming people in all directions. "You're all in WAY over your head." He chuckles.
July finds a nicely secluded… box, where she leaves her clothes, slithering out of them, clad in her blue-and-yellow X-school uniform, and she jumps out toward the front gates of the invaded house, "Jordan! Wait!" she calls out, frowning softly, "What are you doing?" she asks, trying to reason with the man.
Blank seems to stare at Jordan for a few moments, not that one can really tell given her lack of features. The puppet raises a hand, a 'stop' motion to Jordan. Robin knows that she's already in it way over her head, but hey, she's here, she wants to prevent this crime from happening, but most of all, she wants to maybe find a way to get Jordan back to normal. So the puppet gets ready to take action.
"Jordan," is the horrified reply to Lucas' hurried questions. "Oh god, Lucas, it's Jordan… Jordan! Please, stop! Don't hurt him!!" Ignoring the simple, quite probably very factual warning, Rashmi continues her hurried dash for the gates, not stopping until the bars physically prevent it. "Please, Jordan, just… Stop it!" Fumbling about in her book bag, Rashmi yanks out her cell phone, mashing the panic button firmly and repeatedly. Even if none of the adults can protect them in this moment, at least they'll be alerted to the fact that Something Very bad Is Happening.
Lucas lets go of Rash's hand, yanking his gloves off to reveal the hot, bright nuclear reactions around his hands. He hurries to stay ahead of Rashmi, "Hey Jordan!" he yells, tossing a small blast of energy to get his attention.
Cloud recognises the guy causing the trouble from school but has never spoken to him, he curses when he realises hes forgoten his cell, he stops when he reaches July, "What the hell is he doing?"
The blast goes right past him, and Jordan laughs softly. "Alright, children, if you insist, then maybe the good doctor will learn from your mistakes." He says before walking calmly over to the guard, who begins firing. The bullets go right through Jordan's body. He pulls a long thin dowel out of the pouch on his back. He takes it and pushes it into the guard's hand, through the gun. There seems to be no damage. It's like Ms. Pryde when she phases. At least… until he lets go of the dowel. "Now kindly remember, children." He says when he releases it. The guard screams, and the gun is now affixed to his hand. "Two things cannot occupy the same space in the same phase ratio. Otherwise they meld together… PAINFULLY." He smiles. "You'd do wise to remember that and let me take what I came here to take."
July looks at Cloud briefly as the guy approaches her, and she frowns, "I have no idea…" she says, tightening her fists for a moment, "But he doesn't look like himself, and—" but then she's cut off by Jordan's none-too-gentle show, "Oh, my god!! Jordan!!" She calls out, and the first thing she does, out of reflex, is to extend her arm toward Jordan, to try to immobilize him.
Blank flails a bit in panic at that, but Robin decides it would be better to send the puppet in than to risk anyone's physical body. So the blue humanoid runs forward to try and get into Jordan's path.
"July, NO!" Glancing up from her phone, Rashmi reaches out, attempting to snatch the rubber arm away from its intended path. "Look what he just did! Rrrrgh…" Again and again and again the panic button is mashed upon, hopefully making quite the commotion among the adults of the school. "Jordan! Please, just *stop this!* I don't know what Mr. Sinister did to you… but you can't want this! You're *better* than that, damn it!"
Lucas listens to Jordan, and he smiles. He was just told what to do to stop the bad guy by the bad guy. What is this, a comic book? He looks at Rashmi, "Float one of your energy balls over to him and keep it floating INSIDE his guts, just keep it there. When he finds what he's looking for, he'll have to occupy the same phase ratio as the item to grab it. That means, he'll have to be here for a moment, and that means your ball with hurt him inside," he says, quickly and quietly.
Cloud puts a hand on the steel band on his wrist and focuses on leting the metalic second skin cover him, he then takes several steps back then charges at the gate in an attempt to knock them open.
Jordan shakes his head. "You're damn right I'm better. I'm better than that damn school. I'm better than the teacher who couldn't save my dad when they were fighting inf ront of him. -I- had to do it. I'm better than some know-it-all girl who thinks she's got the answers to everything because she's oh-so-proper and polite." He says as July's hand passes right through him. He moves to pick up the guard with a grin, holding him up. "And I'm better than some whiny little bastard who lies about his memories, 'OH BOOHOO, I can't remember what I did as a demon. I can't remember that I hurt people. I can't remember that I made out with Jordan in front of Jordan's boyfriend. I can't remember that there are other people that were demons that remember everything just fine. I'm too good for that. Sinister explained it to me. And you know? He's right. Now, kindly stay back there before the security guard dies. All it'll take is a single dowel in the heart."
The guard, of course, is shaking. When he grabbed the guard, he shrank down to about four feet tall.
July's arm is grabbed, but it keeps going on, as it passes through Jordan as if he is a ghost, and she pulls her arm back, "Gods, Jordan… what happened to you?!" She frowns her face in disgust, and in pity. "What are you doing? What did Sinister DO to you!?" she clenches her fistst again, and looks at Jordan, wondering what he'll do to the guard."
Blank seems to freeze in place as Jordan threatens the guard again. The blue puppet seems to freeze motionlessly, hands in the air and fingers outstretched, taking Robin's standard puppeteer position.
Rashmi freezes in place, the idea Lucas voices turning her slightly green at the mental image. "Lucas… he'll *kill* that guard if I try it…" Squeezing her eyes shut, she draws in a deep, shuddery breath, fixing her gaze back on Jordan. "…And you're so much better, you're taking orders, now, is that it? What'll Mr. Sinister give you when you get back, a pat on the head and maybe a kitten to give cancer to or something? Damn it, Jordan, there're people at the school who *care* about you! Doesn't that *mean* anything to you anymore? Don't you *remember* how much you mean to Robyn?!"
Lucas looks at Rashmi and snaps, "And how many MORE will he kill!?! You aren't killin' him, Rash, just hurtin' him enough to put him down!" He turns, and begins to walk towards Jordan, "Fuck off, Jordan. You know NOTHING." And he lobs a few more blasts of energy at him, knowing it won't hurt but the display makes him feel more confident.
Cloud breaks through the gates and keeps running towards Jordan in an attempt to tackle him to the ground.
As Cloud comes running at him, Jordan goes intangible again, growing a few feet and throwing the guard in front of the running, rampaging teenager with a metal skin. That poor guard is going to get very hurt that way. There are snapping sounds. Probably bones. Oops. Oh well. "Awww, look at that. The new ones just don't know how to stop and think. Instead they charge in and hurt people." He mock-pouts. "I didn't do that. He did." He grins. "Look, you just let me go get the computer here, and the papers, and I'll let you all walk away, free. I'll even leave the doctor alone. I just want what Sinister asked me to get in repayment for his services. I work for him because I -WANT- to. And really, there's nothing you can do to stop me." He starts walking towards the house, remaining tall and intangible. He's walking to a side wall. Not a door. HE sighs softly. "They just don't teach them right anymore."
July blinks as she hears what Jordan says, "WHAT!?" She grits her teeth. "You're lying. No way you'd work with Sinister on your own free will!" she says, and clenches her fists, "And, if Sinister wants what's in that house, all the more reason to not let you, or him, for that matter, anywhere near those papers, Jordan. You know that! What did he /do/ to you!?" She asks again.
Blank returns to a more natural position and glances around again. Feeling at this point she would be more useful in the more expressive and communicative body back in the dorms, the puppet simply vanishes. Maybe Robin will be able to get a teacher or, at the very least, let Robyn know where Jordan is.
"No July, STOP!" Rashmi's face is pained and miserable, hands spread as she walks toward the gates. "…We can't do anything… Not like this. Just… Promise you'll leave everyone alone in there, Jordan. Promise us that… and keep it. Or… we'll find you." Empty words? Perhaps… the redhead is obviously grasping at straws, but there's conviction in her voice as she says that. "We'll hunt you down, and we'll bring you back and lock you up. …I just want to take care of the guard, okay?"
Lucas charges at Jordan, but he doesn't stop. He runs right past him, as fast as he can, towards the house. He blasts ahead of himself, shattering the door apart and running inside. He's looking for computers… "Everyone out the back door!" he shouts as he hurries inside the home.
Cloud rolls off the now badly injured guard, "Fuck, i am so sorry", he stands up, he is pissed, "July keep an eye on the guard, hes hurt badly", he then turns and runs after Lucas.
The X-Kids can add property damage to assault in their list. Jordan doesn't really care. "You're really screwing the pooch on this one. I know where the stuff I need is. I wasn't going to hurt them or damage their property until you all started shit. And your idiot… I mean… your boyfriend is going to cost you some serious money there. This IS a doctor's home." Jordan says, shrugging and looking at Rashmi. "Call him off, so I can get what I came for." He says, glaring as he moves to rise up to head for the upper story, floating on air. "I'll be sure to let Scotty know what you've done here. Endangering lives. Causing trouble. Good going heroes." HE claps his hands before going through the upstairs wall.
July goes to help the guard, bringing her arms to him to hold him steady, "Damn you, Jordan… what happened? What caused you to turn!?" she almost spits in disgust, but the guard's life is more important. She holds on to him, and checks for any broken bones on his body. She didn't get any first aid training, unfortunately.
"LUCAS! CLOUD!!" Rashmi all but screams, hurrying after July toward the downed guard. "Stop already! Just… *COME BACK!!*" Whether her words are heeded or not, she kneels on the other side, putting her rudimentary training to good use. Not for the first time, does she breathe a silent prayer of gratitude for her habit of taking every elective class on offer… just in case.
Lucas doesn't see any computers, so he then charges up the stairs. At the top of the staircase, he looks left and right, looking for anything that resembles one. He rushes into the room on the left, raising his energy hand to blast any computer he sees. There's a laptop open on the bed, and he obliterates it. Then he looks around for any others.
Cloud runs upstairs and begins searching for the room that Jordan went into.
"Fine. You want to play it that way?" Jordan begins floating towards Lucas, pulling a few dowels out into his hands. They, like he, are intangible. "You'd better stop if you know what's good for you. I WILL NOT hesitate to hurt you, and to kill you, Lucas. You already made my life hell as a demon. He moves towards the radiation creating mutant and begins flying slowly, dowels angled to go into his arms in various points. "You're so easy to lead astray too. This isn't where he keeps it." He smiles brilliantly. He aims to put the dowels into the boy's feet to hold him in place, so he can go on about his business.
July curses gain and again under her breath, and she picks up her cellphone, calling an ambulance. "Look, go inside and help them." she says to Rashmi, "All my powers can't touch him, so you gotta go inside help them!!" she nods again, "I'll take care of this guys until help arrives, then I'll join you all if you still need me. Please, go!"
Rashmi's jaw flexes as she grinds down on her back teeth, nodding curtly. "That arm and that leg are broken," she says hurriedly. "Some ribs, too. Don't let him move if you can help it… but don't hold him down. Try to keep him talking until the ambulance gets here. ….We'll be right back." With that, she pelts toward the house, scrubbing the tears away from her eyes with the back of her hand. "Stupid, stupid, stupid Sinister… You're *not* going to win…"
Lucas glances over to see Cloud come into the room. "Damn…" he mumbles to himself. He looks back at Jordan, beginning to increase the power in his hands. The temperature in the room begins to rise rapidly. "Get out. Get everyone out," he says, with a crazed determination, to Cloud. The temperature increases even more, the nuclear fusion around his hands growing blindingly bright as plastic nearby begins to melt from the heat and the cloth and wood on the bed begin to smoke. "…hurry…"
"In case you havn't noticed, he's intangible, blowing yourself up won't help", still Cloud does start taking steps backwards.
Since Lucas is just standing there, Jordan shrugs. He plants four dowels in the boy's feet and through the floor, releasing them and letting them solidify before he goes back downstairs, through the floor. He shrinks for a moment to grab a little flashdrive and a stack of papers off the kitchen table. Casually, he starts to float out of the house. "Your boyfriend's about to blow up the house." He calls to RAshmi. "Add property damage. I'll bet Scotty's gonna be REAL prouda you!" He says, giving a thumbs up before offering a wave. "TOODLES!" He hits a button on the front of his vest and a teleportation field wraps around his body.
"LUCAS!!" Rashmi yells, pelting up the stairs and following the heat. "Turn it off, *NOW!* He's already gone! You're just going to blow up the house for no reason!! THERE ARE CHILDREN IN HERE, DAMN IT!!"
Lucas slowly begins to lower the power in his hands, growling in pain as his feet are pinned. His eyes water a bit in pain, but he grits his teeth, otherwise not showing it. "…gloves…" he manages to grumble.
Cloud runs over to where Lucas is when his feet are pinned, "I can only think of one way to get you loose, this may hurt", he starts punching at the floor until both boys fall through, he straighens up and looks to see if Lucas is ok, "Rashmi, find his gloves!", he turns and runs out of the house straight towards Jordan, he returns to his normal state, then dives at him trying to make contact with his skin.
With bits of floor still attached to Lucas's feet, he's going to be in pain, but can get away, if carried. Though, Jordan is already outside. As Cloud comes barreling at him, he's too late to catch him and stop him from leaving, but he's not too late to teleport WITH him. Poor Cloud. He gets to go to Sinister's lab with the other lab rats. And… there are sirens coming from a distance.
July is holding the officer steady, talking to him to keep him awake, right as Jordan comes out, "Jordan!! Stop, man! You don't want—" but then she's interrupted, and she gasps as she watches Jordan teleport away with Cloud, who just attempted to tackle him, just to be taken with them, "Cloud!!" She cries out in shock, watching both her friends disappear. She hears the sirens and curses. "You'll be ok. The ambulances are coming." she nods to the security guy, before hurrying inside to see if everyone else is ok.
The sound of impacts, and the floor giving way turn Rashmi sick with disbelieving horror. Letting out a huff, she turns, pounding down the stairs, gritting her teeth. "How are we even going to *expla—* nevermind," she mutters, sucking in a deep breath to yell out the door. "JULY! LUCAS' GLOVES ARE BY THE GATE! HURRY!!" Stooping to wrap her arms under Lucas' armpits, she starts tugging, patently unable to carry the larger boy out, but trying her best to take some weight off his feet. "Come on, Lucas… we have to go… where the *hell* is Cloud?!"
Lucas grunts, "Ah'm FINE," kind of angrily through the pain. He even tries to help walk, wincing with each step. He holds his arms out, keeping them far from Rashmi.
July goes to fetch Lucas' gloves, stretching her arms quickly to get them and bring them to Lucas. Once she returns the gloves to the owner, she looks at Rashmi, "He's gone. Jordan somehow teleported away, and Cloud got sucked in with him. So, wherever Jordan is… Cloud is too. Which… probably means at Sinister's place. That is NOT good…" she frowns, "Come on, let's get the hell out of here."
Rashmi bites at her lower lip, and shakes her head. "No… July, help Lucas back to the school. He's got more of those rods stuck in his feet, he needs to see the Doctor. … …But someone has to take responsibility for all this… I'll stay here with the guard."
Lucas looks at Rashmi, "No. Ah stay with you." It's rather dominant in tone, as he looks seriously at Rashmi.
July shakes her head to Rashmi. "I'm taking you both to the school." she says, frowning as she helps Lucas. "You will not stay, dear. Staying here and taking responsibility won't help anyone. We're mutants, they'll blame us all anyways." she shakes her head again, "Come on, let's bolt. They're coming closer."
Rashmi rounds on July, hands clenching. "Ex*cuse* me?! A man has been *hurt,* this doctor's *house has been broken, and you want to just *run?!* What the—no. No, forget it. You want to run, fine. Go ahead. I won't mention you. But *someone* has to be accountable for all this… Otherwise we're no better than any other criminal, mutant or not. Lucas… if you want to go, I won't stop you. …But if you're staying… thanks. Now let's at least get to the lawn and make sure that guard's still okay."
Lucas nods, "Glad we have that settled." He turns to follow Rashmi back to the lawn. The moment her back is to him to lead, he grabs a piece of the broken steel gate and swings it at her. His biology knowledge lets him know right where to hit to knock her out easiest, and he swings only hard enough to do so. "She'll never be a lawyer with a criminal record." He looks at July, his face a little sad. "Get her back to the mansion. Ah'll stay."
July slaps her forehead, and sighs softly, "We're going together." she says, wrapping one arm a few times around Rashmi, then around Lucas as well. "There's no point of anyone staying, and you'll only take the blow for nothing." she says, "We can discuss this at the mansion." she wraps her other arm around Lucas and runs away as fast as she can with her elongated legs.
Lucas doesn't go with her. "No," he says. "Rashmi wants it held accounted for. That's what Ah'm doin'." He sits. "Ah'll see you there later. Or, you can bail me out."
