9/7 Game: The End of All Things
Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2013 3:05 am
Timelined Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016
<Sue> Sue vented her frustration at a particularly retarded group of LFRers and ragequit before switching characters to go and nuke some things until she felt better. People were idiots. At least she could drink in her room.
<Toxic> Adam was, as was Adam's wont, making art. Rather than being the blur that occasionally creeped the hell out of - or straight-up terrified - the new students, he was in his black and green ensemble in the rec room and apparently making a tree out of cheese. All sorts of different cheese, in fact, and it was about three feet high. He was wearing one of his gasmasks to deal with the overwhelming (for him) scent, though. Couldn't be too careful.
<Calvin> Calvin was sitting on the shoulder of Hobbes out in the X-hangar, blowtorching an antenna to his big pink friends' shoulder. It would allow him to listen to Tokyo FM while fighting the forces of evil (TM).
<Jimmy> "I can't believe that asshole stomped on me! I mean I know I'm fuckin' short but that's just takin' the PISS mate!" Jimmy was still not letting it go that Scott had stomped him. not that you could blame him, he was stick in a wheelchair now which left him looking like Prof X Jr. it just wasn't sexy!
<Jessica> Jess was rather enjoying her time in the Danger Room. Sure, she'd mostly done this backwards having already performed the field test of the costume Viper had sent her but still. She could go all out on the simulations though so that was better.
<Toxic> Adam side-eyed the bald guy with epic eyebrows. "I don't know. It's made you slightly more tolerable." He picked up a tube of squeezy cheese and used it to glue another slice of brie onto the 'trunk'.
<DrSummers> Scott was in his office, catching up on some articles that might be useful on DNA. He flipped over a page. It was quiet here, and he was glad of it. He looked at the postcard on his desk, from Cecilia. She was in Morocco with Fabian. They'd deserved a good vacation. Having buggy people down here had been unnerving, and he was thankful to Broo for helping with a cure.
<Melati> "As much as I miss having some additional arms, it's good to be able to hold your own beer again," Melati remarked as she returned from the kitchen, popping open her bottle with the claw of her thumb. The cap clattered to the floor, going ignored for now, while she raised the bottle to take a sip of the cooled drink. "Aw yeah, I missed that the most."
<Johnathon> "To be fair, Jim, if the guy grows, everybody is basically short. I think he has got the most Freudian powers of us all." Said the man who stuck holes everywhere while painting the news on canvas. He had decided to go for the impressionist approach.
<Callie> Callie was upstairs in her room on her second bottle of wine. She'd given up on the glass and was drinking right from the bottle. She'd been turned into a bug. That wasn't something she could live through. Drowning it in good wine helped her forget the memories.
<Jonas> Jonas was laying in the rec room, a stack of old comics next to him, going through them all one by one. "Well you can always go to that teacher that can heal you, Anna... something." Jonas told Jimmy.
<Melati> "Or ask Danger and Calvin if they could fix you up with some nifty robot parts," Melati suggested, raising her bottle to Jimmy. "I'm sure they'd be eager to give you a legs up."
<Kevin> Kevin was hammering a piece of metal down into a shapeless mass. It was something to do to keep himself occupied.
<Mick> Mick was currently trying to work a mouse with his left arm, the right...well, missing below the elbow, thanks to the knife-shields or whatever they'd been. He finally swore and pushed himself up, heading for the rec room and a break, trying not to scratch the stump - or the heavy scar on his face.
<Jimmy> "Badum-tish," Jimmy deadpanned at Mel, before scratching his hairless chin, "Though ... I dunno, maybe I could get spider-bot legs? That would be fukkin' awesome."
<Calvin> "Don't worry, Hobbey, it won't interfere with your anime downloads. Though I just hope the FBI will neve rfind you, because I am not paying the fine then."
<Broo> Broo was down in the labs, the whole place looking more like a scrapyard than anything else with all the machines and gizmos he had gutted for parts. The bug boy hummed while he worked, typing on the computer hooked up to the gadget he was getting close to ready for testing.
<Toxic> Adam hummed happily as he smoothed the next layer of cheese. "Hai guys. Wow, lots of people today, and I even recognise some of you!" There was movement in the mass of dreads, a tiny black face poking out of the nest and staring before there was an unimpressed growl.
<Sue> Sue snorted at a comment on teamspeak then proceeded to choke on her drink. "Nooooo I'm dying and it's all your fault! Argh! Too many rabbits! Get off get off! Little bastards!" She hammered a few buttons and smiled as things exploded on her screen. "Ah. Better."
<Cassie> Sitting outside in the shade cast by the patio roof, Cassandra let her legs dangle off the railing as she enjoyed the last moments of faint sunlight before dusk. Looking up from the book resting in her lap, she gazed into the distance. Usually the onset of darkness was one of her favourite times of the day, but today she couldn't shake that eerie feeling in the back of her mind.
<ProfXavier> Charles had been working on paperwork in his office. Now, he dozed peacefully, his glasses perched on the tip of his nose, his hands folded on his desk.
<Viper> Viper completed the final checks and smiled to herself. Everything was in place. Taking up a seat in her chosen spot, she activated the comms. "When you are ready, Doctor, let the educating begin."
<Angelina> In her bedroom, Angel tried on a pair of new pair of Louis Vuittons. Springing up from the bed, she checked her reflection in the full-length mirror and gave her wings a slight buzz.
<Jonas> Closing the current comic book and dropping it on the 'done' pile, Jonas picked up another one from the 'to read' stack. "So.. why aren't there more vigilantes in the city?" he asked, paging through that comic. "I mean... there's how many mutants by now in the world, even in New York, you'd think some of them would start up their own superhero agenda."
<Toxic> Adam glanced at comic-boy, handing up a tiny bit of cheese to the ball of brooding evil in his dreads. "Maybe we're the only one stupid enough to try." He shrugged. "Fuck knows we take enough shit for it."
<Rott> The good doctor looked up from his machine, a chaotic mess of wires, pipes, and tubes, all crammed into the back of the large truck. The fiendish glee was plastered across his face, the spark of madness glimmering in his eyes behind the tinted shades. "Always ready for you, my dear," he replied, reaching for the big levers attached to the control panel. "School's out, my little piggies! Time to start the real lesson."
<Jessica> Jess put her hand through the head of a simulation and sighed at the irritating noise that reminded her killing people was bad. She rolled her eyes behind her mask and venomblasted a couple more, probably with too much power.
<Calvin> Johnathon> "Haven't you noticed all the crazies we have to deal with? Who would want to do that in their spare time?," Johnathon told Jonas.
<Dai> Dai was sat in her office, desperately trying to find some sort of resource she could use to help counsel the recently ... transformed. She'd knew being a counselor to mutant kids would be a challenge but she never though she'd be Googling 'hive bug mentality psychology'.
<Jack> While over on the other side of town, Jack was preparing the club to open in a couple hours' time.
<Rott> He yanked down the lever, and the insane invention came to life with an unpleasant hum, bubbling noises coming from the tubes filled with odd liquids. The wires stuck to the disembodied brains within starting cackling with power. Rott couldn't help but give a hysterical laugh.
<Mick> "Tell me 'bout it." His voice was slightly slurred still, though he'd been told the slight brain-damage from having his carapace broken open would heal itself with time. He sat down carefully, giving in and scratching the cover that protected his stump. It didn't help, but he could pretend, right? "Anyone got a pen?"
<ProfXavier> Charles snorted in his sleep, swatting at what may have been a buzzing insect.
<Kael> Kael was on his back on his bed, on the phone to his parents in Russia, when he winced, rubbing his eyes and a hand going to his stomach. He suddenly felt oddly sick.
<Jonas> "Think there should be a pen at the phone," Jonas said, thumbing over his head towards the old landline phone gathering dust.
<Melody> Melody on the other hand was having much better luck with her Google search, turned out you could get almost anything on the internet and that included chew toys for tigers, Harmony was napping in her (slightly mangled) cot.
<Cassie> It started as an unsettling shiver crawling up her spine, a sense of unease welling up in her mind. Moments later the serene surroundings began to spin in front of her eyes as her vision started to blur. The book she had been holding hit the ground, only moments before Cassandra tipped backwards and slammed onto the patio floor.
<Sue> Sue frowned at her computer screen. "Uh guys, I think that all-nighter was a mistake, imma go take a nap. Feel a bit funny. See you later..." she logged out and closed her laptop, getting up to crawl over to the bed.
<Jonas> Jonas blinked and squinted, trying to focus on the comic's speech bubbles, before he had to put the book down and rub his eyes.
<Toxic> Adam, on the other hand, headtilted at his cheese tree, frowning as his bright blue eyes went a little distant. His gloved fingers blurred for a moment, before the blur cut out. "Okay, who broke the world? Because I know I haven't missed a dose but my head's doing that weird thing it usually does when I don't take the drugs."
<Melody> The tiny demon baby frowned in her sleep and started to make pathetic little 'hup-hup' noises. Mel frowned, shutting down the laptop and going to stand up, "What's the matter ba-uuugh ...." suddenly not feeling so good, had Fabian's kitchen experiments finally given her food poisoning?
<Callie> Callie wondered when the clouds had gotten so thick. She went to the window, and looked at the flowerbed below. She smiled. They were so pretty. She made them grow bigger and bigger, their roots crawling up the wall carrying them toward her until she could smell them. Their scent made her feel ill and she made it to the bathroom before she vomited. "All that nice wine," she moaned then crawled back to her bed, hoping to sleep whatever it was off. It was some horrible aftermath of the hive mind thing, she was sure.
<Melati> "Either they made the beer stronger while I was out being some bug monster, or I just can't handle this stuff as I used to," Melati remarked, eying the bottle in her hand as she had to reach out with her free hand to grab something for support.
<Angelina> For the first time in her life, Angel lost her balance on her four-inch heels. She staggered forward and had to catch herself with a hand against the mirror.
<Jimmy> Jimmy stopped mid-sip then glared at his glass, "You and me bo-" he froze, staring at the unremarkable far wall, then started screaming at the top of his lungs.
<Johnathon> Johnathon just lost his balance, noticing a wrong line from his paintbrush Noooooooooooooooooooo! before keeling over.
<Jimmy> "JESUSFUCKIN'CHRISTONASALAMILOOKATTHATTHINGCOMMINGOUTOFTHEWALLIT'SLOOKINGATMEWHATTHEFUCK!!!?"
<Mick> Mick reached for the pen and nearly fell off his seat. Ugh, he was looking forward to his balance not fucking up. He winced at the scream, glaring at Jimmy for a moment before blinking. "Huh...Peanut..."
<Jimmy> "THE EYES! THE EYES! SO MANY EYES WITH TEETH!"
<Calvin> Calvin just stopped the blowtorch and fell backwards. He was lucky that Hobbes, seemingly unimpressed by the going ons, caught him.
<Jessica> Jess yelped as one of her charges got conducted back to her. "Motherfucker!" It didn't hurt as much as it should have but something was off. That shouldn't have happened. "End program...." She shook her head, "Danger, are you there?"
<Danger> Deep down in the school's basement, Danger paused her current task when an unusual occurrence piqued her attention. One by one, the mansion's security systems reported failures and went offline. Had she been able to frown, she undoubtedly would have done so at this point.
<Kevin> Kevin looked up sharply. Had there been someone there? He put the heated iron in the forge and the hammer away before going to investigate. "Hello?" He opened door after door, finding he was alone. He turned to go back to what he'd been doing, but found he was lost. He staggered down the hall, trying to remember where the smithy was.
<Jimmy> He attempted to standup to run away from whatever it was she was seeing and fell flat on his face, half screaming, half sobbing into the carpet as he tried to crawl away from whatever it was he was seeing, "What the fuck are you people doing! It's right behind you! RUN!"
<Jonas> Jonas, being slightly confused and distracted thanks to Jimmy's screaming, also tried to push himself up from where he was laying, only to find that the couch was made out of some kind of sticky goop that was pulling him down. "Du--furk" he said, even having trouble speaking.
<Viper> After the tear gas was well and truly spread, Viper gave her next instruction, "My dear friends, now is the time to strike at our common enemy. We will support you, I assure you."
<ProfXavier> Charles came awake with a snort, immediately turning to look at the window. He screamed, hands clutching at his head.
<DrSummers> Scott sat back, rubbing his temples. His eyes hurt, a headache seeming to blossom. This hadn't happened in a while. He realized that he might actually blow his glasses, so he went to the locker room to fetch his visor. That helped somewhat, but it was still not good. He moaned as his headache spiked, and he went back to the medlab for some painkillers, collapsing on the floor in the hall.
<Melati> Even with the aid of her tail, Melati was unable to keep her balance, tipping over to fall into the coffee table. The shattering glass was the least of her concerns, however, and neither were the screaming students around her. "Fuck, my beer!" she yelled, flailing to catch the spilling bottle. But all hope was lost, and it just seeped into the carpet. "Nooooo!"
<Jessica> Jess headed for the door of the Danger Room with some difficulty. She could barely walk but her flight powers were acting up. Something was very wrong. "Hellooooo? Is anyone down here....?" she called along the hall.
<Angelina> Angel retched, the acid hitting the mirror and dissolving the surface. Her reflection bubbled and ran. "Dio..."
<Jonas> "Cawnt...muv...." Jonas struggled and felt like he was sinking. He saw chains snaking around him, getting tighter and tighter, squeezing him the deeper he sunk into the couch.
<Sue> Sue glanced out of the window, it was very foggy. She thought for a moment that she saw a shape moving down there and instinctively shielded herself.... and felt instantly better. "The hell...?" She lowered the shield and felt sick again so back up they went. "Sense this does not make... maybe I'm not using my powers enough..."
<Toxic> Adam blinked at the screaming/flailing students. "Huh..." Him seeing things and such was normal. Everyone else on the other hand, well, unless they'd been lying and he wasn't the only hallucinating nutcase...he stood up, hands out as his balance wavered a little, before things started going dark. "Ooooh. Okay. Badness...and for once I'm the one not seeing shit." He went to kick up into the air and ended up whimpering as he gave himself a nosebleed. "Aw
<Melody> Melody succeeded in reaching the cot just as Harmony woke up and started to cry properly, reaching for her mother, "Baby, you have a bad dream?" There was movement out of the corner of her eyes and she looked, the colour draining out of her face, ".... Nathan?"
<Danger> Weighing her options, Danger went with the most sensible choice and triggered the mansion-wide alarm, before engaging the intercom. "This is Danger, speaking to all students and staff, with a preliminary warning. You may be experiences some unexpected events. I'm still evaluating the data. Please remain calm and await further instructions."
<Jessica> Oh God, that sound! She put her hands over her ears. "Turn it off! For God's sake! Turn it off!"
<Jolen> Jolen was running through the struggling students and looking for Toxic. They had to get out of here, he'd hadn't felt so scared since that bear!
<Jimmy> There he was, face unshaven and still wearing that stupid cap, smiling at her, and she fell over backwards from the combination of sickness and shock, "bu' ... but you can't ... I saw ... they killed you! I saw them put you in the ground!"
<Mick> Mick heard the warning, smiling at Danger's voice. Just sit tight, they'd be fine.
<Calvin> Hobbes put Calvin into the pilot seat in his chest. He would be safe for now. It was time to kick some ass. He stepped out of the hangar.
<Cassie> Outside, Cassandra had managed to cling to consciousness, struggling to push herself up on her elbows with little success. Rolling over to lie on her stomach, she was able to raise her head, trying to focus her shaky vision long enough to figure out what was happening. The strange fog had gotten thicker, and it also seemed to draw closer to the mansion.
<Noriko> Noriko was still in the med lab going through the last of the physicals now she was changed back, because normal food was still making her throw up. The fear ramming through her had her running to a corner and hiding under a blanket cringing from Dangers warning.
<Cassie> She believed to spot figures moving through it.
<Jimmy> Dai frowned at Danger's warnings, looking around her, she felt a bit fluey but what was that robot on about?
<Toxic> Adam decided using his abilities when they were giving him nosebleeds wouldn't be a good idea - no internal bleeds for him, kay thanks. He kept the gasmask on though as there was a heavy, muffled sound of an explosion somewhere. "Was that real? Anyone else hear that?"
<Broo> Broo stumbled and half crawled out the lab's doors, looking down the corridor. He could have sworn he had heard Jess' voice, but what he saw was something entirely different. He started screaming.
<DrSummers> Callie had passed out, so the alarms didn't bother her, but they made Scott scream in agony. It was too much. He managed to crawl into the medbay and to his office. Kevin was running through the school, having taken off his bracelets when the siren went off. He had to protect himself. He ran blindly, holding out his arms in front of him.
<Ankka> Ankka was in the lab with Noriko - worrying over her, as usual - and he hid with the girl, pulling her into his lap. "Hush, sveetheart, it's fine."
<Jessica> Jess looked down the hall at the screaming, her eyes focusing on Broo as her vision swam around him, "Broo? Are you okay?!" She pulled herself together and hurried toward him.
<ProfXavier> Struggling through the pain in his mind, Charles clutched the edge of the desk. Prying his eyes open, he could see the fog on the grounds through the window. Stay calm, my students, he tried to send to them. He started to roll toward the door.
<Noriko> Noriko whimpered as Summers ran past, clinging to Ankka as she was pulled onto his lab, squeaking pathetically as words weren't quite available yet.
<Broo> The little mutant stumbled back, shuffling and crawling to get away from the thing coming towards him. He had never been so afraid in his life, and he couldn't figure out a way of getting away fast enough. Unless. Broo stumbled towards the device he was working on.
<Danger> The acoustic element of the alert died down after a while, leaving only the red light flashing incessantly. Danger was accessing all systems at once, trying to restart the security protocols, or least receive a camera feed from the outside.
<Jessica> "Broo! Come back!" She hurried to catch up with him, stumbling with the dizziness and catching herself on the wall. She had to stop for a moment to get her balance.
<Jimmy> Calm? There was a fucking Clive Barker thing coming for them all out the wall! YOU stay calm motherfucker!
<Calvin> Hobbes stepped in front of various humans, holding up what appeared to be weapons, aiming at him. He kicked one of then all the way to Massachusetts. Then they started firing the rockets.
<Viper> "Fire at will, friends." Viper smiled as she heard the sounds of grenades leaving barrels.
<Broo> He was having difficulty concentrating on the handheld device, trying to punch in numbers, before pulling the plugs out of from the computer, crawling under his desk, and hitting the thing to start working already. He leaned forward to see i the thing was still coming for him.
<Angelina> Regaining her balance, Angel hovered in the room. She glanced out the window on the way to the door and stopped. There were men on the lawn. Soldiers. Near the woods.
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth came wandering out of her room JD bottle in hand and swigging it occasionally, every time her shields went down she felt like death itself was in her mind so she needed to take the edge off. Trying to hide the panic with white knuckles and alcohol as she walked calmly down the hall looking for Jimmy
<Melati> "Fucking hell, this is not a drill," Melati stated the obvious, getting back on her feet as soon as she noticed the dizzying effects lessen for some reason. "We're under attack!"
<Toxic> Adam shook his head at the students, eyes narrowed at the suddenly dark outside. Even through the malfunctioning powers, he could feel there were heartbeats there shouldn't be. Pretty sure I'm the only calm one here right now, Prof. And that's saying something. He kicked the tentacle that was - apparently - trying to hold his ankle with a snort. Too used to this shit.
<Toxic> "No shit, Mel. Dunno about you but my mutanty is borked, so I'm gonna go take a look outside. If you see my boyfriend, could you get his gorgeous betentacled ass in my direction, please?"
<Jessica> Jess rounded the doorway, her eyes sweeping the room as fast as they were able with the dizziness for her brother. "Broo! We have to le-" She cut off as he disappeared, "Noooo! Broo!" Where had he gone?!
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth spotted jimmy and ran for him the *monster* over him was wrenched off the ground and slammed backwards like a tennis ball. "You better be a-fucking-live Jimmy!"
<Jimmy> "My whole fuckin' life flashed in front of my eyes," he moaned, "it was really fuckin' boring!"
<Jessica> The sound of an explosion above drew Jess' attention next. "Oh hell... Is anyone else down here?" she called into the medlab.
<Calvin> Hobbes swatted the people firing him aside, not taking particular care that they survived. This was an all-out siege. A stupid siege, considering that he was a huge robot with lasers and the science-equivalent of molting lava being jettisoned from his mouth, but still a siege.
<Cassie> Something exploding not too far from her was all the motivation Cassandra needed to fight her way back into an upright position - just in time to see the men with gas masks advancing through the cover of smoke. She didn't even need to see the weapons they trained at her to know that they came with ill intent.
<Elizabeth> "I'm hardly surprised." She grinned dragging him off the floor and dusting him off. "Glad to see you de-bugged and- She was cut off as the wall next to the blew inwards and knocked her flying.
<Sue> Sue reinforced her shields and gathered up her laptop. Priorities. Her life was on that thing, it was not getting left behind. She stuffed it in a rucksack and pulled it onto her back before heading out into the corridor.
<Jimmy> "Elizabeth!"
<Cassie> Gunfire tore into the wood of the patio, showering her with splinters. The raven haired girl shielded her face, instinctively calling upon the darkness to protect her. The swirling shadows curled around her, more erratically than usual.
<Ankka> "Kyllä! I mean yes - me and Noriko are here. Is that you, Jess?"
<Jessica> "Yes! We need to get out of here!" She looked around the medlab again, "Did you see where Broo went?"
<Noriko> Noriko cringed at the next explosion and clung harder to Ankka, she could hear Jess but she wasn't getting over the fear to easily.
<Toxic> Adam went to open the back door, before the wall folded in on itself. "Okay, I'll use that one. Oh come on, piss off, I see worse when I miss a dose." He muttered at the hallucinations. "There's no burning trees with bodies on meathooks, for one. Ohey, they have grenade launchers! I want one!"
<Ankka> "No." He picked Noriko up, holding her close, frowning worridly at Jess. "And my powers aren't vorking right. Is he still down here?"
<Angelina> She reached the window in time for it to blow inwards, showering her with broken glass. Angel screamed, her wings ripped in a half dozen places as she fell to the floor.
<Jonas> The explosion rocked Jonas' hallucination away, freeing him to move, but also causing him to be covered in debris where he lay. He gasped for air as he rolled over to the floor to push himself up.
<Melati> "Less panicking, more ass-kicking!" Melati was well on her way to engage whoever was attacking them, diving through the rec room window the moment the bullets started ripping through the door. "You'll regret coming to this party uninvited, pals."
<Jimmy> The explosion rocked the building and Harmony started to scream. Mel forced herself onto her hands ad knees and when she looked up Nathan was gone, "Th-the shiii-ugar?" She corrected herself before getting to her feet, picking up her baby.
<Jessica> "I... I don't know... he disappeared...." And she was so worried. She cast her eyes around the room again, "I don't see him at all... I'll just have to hope he's somewhere safe..."
<Kevin> The explosion happened behind him - Kevin turned only to be gunned down by a machine gun. Callie never woke up, so she died where she lay, a bullet in her head.
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth struggled to get up from under the rubble pinning her legs but a pissed off yell soon got the rubble flying out the window so she could stagger to her feet. "So I was thinking maybe we should get out of here Jimmy?”
<ProfXavier> Charles rolled into the hall, searching for his students and staff.
<Ankka> He nodded, kissing Noriko's forehead before looking up as he heard explosions. "Odin's eye. Ve're being attacked. Come on, you can both stay with me, ve need to find the others."
<Jimmy> ".... Y'know I'm thinking that's a good idea babes," Jimmy managed, rolling onto his back, "Are you okay?"
<Sue> Sue was pretty safe in her bubble and was glad for this. But she was still a visible target. She fixed that. And now... outside. She was a paladin dammit. Paladins were badass. And she was a fucking tank. Kill all the things! Well... knock them out.
<Jolen> One of the grenades smashed right through a window but rather exploding on the floor Jolen got to take it straight to the chest plant person exploding all over the walls.
<Jessica> Jess nodded at Ankka, "I... I need to find Sebastian... please..."
<Kael> The werewolf, at the first explosion, had done what he did best - hide, shaking and whimpering, under the bed. Oh hell no he wasn't doing this! Not this time! He forced himself out, staggering as the floor rocked under him from another explosion. Going onto all fours, he belted out of the room with a yelp.
<Dai> The wall in Dai's office imploded, burying her in rubble.
<DrSummers> Scott opened his visor and blew the rubble off him and the desk. It was easy, as his power seemed to have gone haywire, and he'd taken out a large chucking of the two floors above him. Hopefully there hadn't been students there.
<ProfXavier> The explosion slammed his chair into the far wall of the hallway, and Charles spilled out into the floor.
<Johnathon> Spot scrambled about. He had to ge tout of here...where was a good spot he had left lying around, as far from here as possible? Oh right, Vito's!
<Mayday> At the sound of alarm, Mayday had immediately headed below to the basement level of the mansion, suiting up and emerging again only to engage in combat with the attackers on ground level. Head still spinning, she slowly regained consciousness, eyes adjusting to the odd light and visage behind her armored mask.
<Viper> "I think it's time for some more entertainment...." Viper took aim and fired the special grenades right at the building. They exploded and showered the area, friend and x-man alike. "Open the crates. Release the broodlings."
<Toxic> Adam blurred out of the way of another grenade, catching it and throwing it back. Oh wait, he shouldn't be...oh well. He shrugged as a crater was blown in the grounds. People wanted them dead, well, he knew how to answer that one.
<Cassie> Staggering under the relentless fire, Cassandra followed her natural instinct and attempted to teleport someplace save - except that she didn't seem to be able to summon the portal. Through the smoke, she saw a familiar lizard-like shake tearing through the front line of the attackers.
<Mayday> The armor suit had kept Mayday alive when the entire rec-room had been destroyed, wall cascading atop her and three of the rioting attackers she was facing. Judging by the lack of noise coming from the rest of the debris, she assumed only she'd survived it.
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth brushed herself off and nodded looking at the now broken JD bottle in her hand. "Pissed off now actually." Kneeling down she opened her arms to him. "Come on I don't need my hands for anything so I can carry you shortarse."
<Angelina> Her wings were nearly useless, but she dragged herself to her feet and kicked off the beautiful shoes. Angel ran for the hall.
<Melody> What the fuck was going on? She went to the window and ducked down as soon as she saw the figures swarming across the lawn. They were being attacked!?
<Jimmy> "I ain't never gonna live this down," Jimmy slurred, but let Elizabeth pick him up, "Spider-bot looking pretty good right about now.”
<Mayday> Panic was not what Mayday felt. Her chest felt...almost depression and fear, and her head was still spinning as she forced herself up, using as much of her strength as she could to remove rock and rubble from her body and crawling away to compose herself. She sighed, trying not to cry.
<Rott> Back at their mobile base, Rott hurried to yank another lever. There was some screaming coming from outside the truck as some of the starved Brood decided there was enough time to snack on their handlers, before buzzing off towards their target as an enraged swarm of vicious claws and teeth. "Fly, my pretties! Fly!" The doctor cleared his throat. "I always wanted to say that..."
<Mick> Mick had managed to teleport out of the way of rubble, but he couldn't come back out of the wires properly, a barely-there shape outlined by blue lines. "Fuck!" He swore as his shape glitched. "Not good, this is not good-" A grenade hit the mass of line and stuck in the centre, and as it exploded, Mick glitched into white noise with an electronic shriek.
<Elizabeth> Taking a good grip on her friend she pushed herself to her feet and seeing none students running towards them screamed into their minds so hard their faces started bleeding and they ran face first into the floor, and stopped.
<Hisako> Ichiki Hisako had taken longer than the others to wake up. She recalled a haze of shouting, a terrifying sight of men entering her room and opening fire on the bed, and the instinctive flash of amber she'd released to protect herself.
<Melody> Melody looked down at her daughter, she was the only thing that mattered right now, they had to get out! She quickly grabbed the framed picture of Nate off her bedstand and held it close before grabbing a blanket to wrap it and her baby in, "Shush sweetie, momma's gonna keep you safe." A teleporter, she needed a teleporter!
<ProfXavier> Charles dragged himself to the wall and braced his back against it, grabbing his useless legs and tucking them close. He pulled the chair over him as a meager shell of protection. Then, he closed his eyes and focused on the enemy minds.
<Hisako> Hisako recalled lifting the Samidare. She recalled drawing it and she recalled shouts, protests and panic as she swung the blade. She recalled the warmth of blood and the horrific fear she'd felt as more and more of it spattered the walls.
<Johnathon> He grabbed his art supplies and went through one of his spots. There was too much shooting and exploding and...screeching here for an artist. Better to sit this out at Vito's, with a nice glass of absynthe. Maybe he'd also call the police.
<Melati> Melati soon was splattered in blood - some of it her own, but most of it came from her unlucky opponents. She couldn't care less about the source of either, pushing on even when bullet after bullet tore into her scaly hide. The pain only fueled her rage.
<Jessica> "Oh shit, wait!" Jess hurried back down the hall to the locker room, going to pick up her trophy from Japan. She wasn't about to leave that behind when she hadn't even played with it properly. "Okay, I'm good!"
<DrSummers> Scott got up and ran out to defend the school. Scott happened to look out of a gaping hole in the wall and saw a swarm of this insect-things. He tried to blast them out of the sky, and a couple of them dodged, changing their course to get him. They attacked, bursting through the opening.
<Jonas> Jonas had long ago pulled himself up and had joined Melati in kicking ass and chewing bubblegum, and he was all out of gum.
<Jolen> Jolen had been exploded into a wide range of bits and after a minute of mental confusion realise he could sense the rest of himself all over the place, pissed off at people attacking his home he encouraged a huge growth spurt.
<Hisako> However, Hisako didn't stop swinging the blade. She swung it when she saw someone get shot, she swung it when someone hurled a hatchet at her. She stabbed with it before an explosion removed two human figures from existence. And after she lost her left eye, she continued swinging until she couldn't for the pain.
<Toxic> Adam lifted his hands, testing his abilities. His eyes flared red and he smiled beautifically. "Everybody...hands up for DJ Toxic." He murmured. With that, there was a sudden, wonderful explosion that was definitely not from a grenade. And another. He had no problem killing, and the blood started whirling around him in ribbons.
<Dai> One of the goons stepped through the hole in Dai's office and heard her soft moan from under the rubble. Grinning to himself he went to pull the remains of her desk off her to finish the job, and he was still grinning as the jet of flame shot out as soon as she was uncovered, killing him instantly.
<Jolen> In the large hallway where he'd been hit a gigantic and angry plant monster was being built grabbing and ripping apart anything that didn't smell like his home until they found other bits and joined up, increasing size and speed as they went.
<Hisako> Having bandaged it to the best of her ability, Hisako staggered the halls, sword drawn and armor up around her, bloodstained white night gown dripping as she held her hand hard against her face, muttering prayers that the blood would stop pouring from her face as she looked for help.
<Cassie> Shrouded in unnatural darkness, Cassandra hovered slightly above ground, as she lashed out with several shadowy arms, toppling some of the attackers or lifting them off the ground - but they just kept coming. She had to defend this breach in the wall. Her friends were on the other side.
<Angelina> Angel ran down the hall, screaming when another blast brought down the upper floor, and the staircase.
<Jolen> As a majority of Jolen's body found itself and formed up he created a large face amidst the tentacles, eyes enough to really distinguish the enemy and using his form to defend this area of the hall, preventing people getting in via the hole in the wall.
<Ankka> He nodded to Jess. "Do you know vhere Shaw vould be?" He led them out of the room, immediately turning and shielding both the girls from a sudden spat of gunfire, the bullets pinging off him. The owner got a sudden electrical charge that blew him against the wall. "Too strong. They're messing with our abilities."
<Jessica> Jess secured the katana to her back then climbed up the wall, crawling along it to the stairs to find a way up for Annka and Nori. "Everything's collapsed, Ankka, we're stuck down here..."
<Dai> Dai couldn't remember being this furious, the tiny center of calm in her brain marveling at the carnage. The rest of her however was caught up in primal, feral rage. These people dare attack her home and her kids!? She struggled to wriggle free of the wreckage, her form growing in size, skin changing to a bright green and growing scaly as she squeezed out of the hole in the wall, another jet of flame from her growing snout immolating the bugs that attacked.
<Jessica> "He was teaching I think so in the classrooms somewhere... I don't know...." She venom blasted another FoH guy before he had a chance to aim.
<DrSummers> The last thought that Scott had was that he should have gone to visit his parents when they had asked him to. The bug things continued on their massacre down the hall, leaving Scott's body on the ground, his visor knocked off and his eyes open, staring at the ceiling.
<Hisako> It had taken her a while - a while to get over the fear of every shadow, every running person, thinking they were foe - but Hisako finally came upon Cassandra St. Commons, watching her defend the wall as best she could. She stepped forward, still limping as her depth perception betrayed the distance of her feet and the floor.
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth staggered down the hall clutching Jimmy, her leg seriously hurting and her mind going over the fact she'd forgotten two days worth of meds and apparently she deserved the pain. No not today she needed to stop this.
<Danger> Deeming it a lost cause, Danger gave up her attempts to activate the school's defenses. Clearly, a more hands on approach was called for. Leaving the automated systems in charge of the control room, she checked the power status of her robotic body and stepped through the door.
<Elizabeth> And the next idiot running at them was thrown so hard against the wall by Liz's powers he went through it and flew in a ragdoll arch to splatter on the drive.
<Melody> Melody peered outside her door into the smoking hallway, she heard the sound of feet running up through the smoke and gunshots. The attackers! think fast girl!
<Ankka> The huge Finn snorted, putting Noriko down beside Jess for a moment as he stared at the rubble. What he wouldn't give for Fabian... "Give me a moment." He concentrated, trying to find the power he'd touched on his last boost - and found it far, far too easily. Setting his hands against the rubble, he pushed, muscles bunching and the rubble simply breaking apart.
<Sue> Sue appeared beside Cassie, throwing up forcefields to confuse their enemies as they were unable to see them and ran right into them. "What the fuck is happening?!"
<Jimmy> "Look! Look! Cars! can you hotwire!" Jimmy flail pointed over Liz's shoulder at the garage.
<ProfXavier> Charles attacked the invading minds, recognizing one of them from his brief visits to the school. He'd had hopes for that one. Now, he struck him on the psychic plane.
<Calvin> Hobbes just stomped out hordes of creepy crawlies. Too bad he couldn't fit inside the mansion in order to help the students.
<Jessica> Jess put her arm around Nori for comfort, "We're going to be okay. The duck's got it."
<Cassie> An explosion detonated right in front of her, and even though her shadowy constructs took most of the hit, the force was enough to throw Cassandra's petite frame backwards. She crashed through some windows and doors, before her involuntary flight was stopped by a solid wall.
<Elizabeth> "No I can't drive for shit! Oh fuck it." Running at the whole in the wall she jumped out and prayed her powers let her down the drop gently. It didn't go so gently as her leg gave way when they landed.
<Hisako> Hisako blinked with her working eye, spotting Susan Storm past the blood and opening her dry mouth to say something, managing nothing. She stopped against a wall, taking a few deep breaths; her head felt light. She focused a force field as best she could inside her eye to stop what bleeding she could, standing as the explosion cast Cassandra aside.
<Melody> Melody grabbed a bedside lamp, wriggling the plug out of the wall and smashing the head off her desk to make an improvised shiv, hiding behind her door as the footsteps grew closer. They had one chance.
<Noriko> Noriko looked up at Jess and her eyes glowed between tiny squeaks. She wanted to help desperately but she was too scared.
<Toxic> Adam drifted off the ground, his orbiting blood snapping out and cutting through weapons, bugs and people alike, not particularly caring as he flicked a hand and slammed people away from him and other students. This was better.
<Hisako> Blade raised to one side, she made for the breach, her armor frame burning a hot scarlet as she leapt out of the gap.
<Jimmy> "Fuckin' useless woman! Get me to the cars! I can get them started but you'll have to drive or something!"
<Sue> "Cassie! Fuck!" Sue's eyes narrowed. Her forcefields broke apart and hundreds of razor sharp invisible fields flew at the enemies on the lawn.
<Calvin> A barrage of grenades hit Hobbes in teh chest, blowing a huge hole through him. Luckily they had missed Calvin by centimetres. Hobbes decide to leg it in order to protect his friend. He took off like a rocket.
<ProfXavier> Blood started to trickle from Charles' nose, and he trembled, though for no visible reason. These minds... were strong. But he was stronger, and his children were threatened.
<Mayday> Sliding along the floor, Mayday barely managed to dodge a table sent flying as two Brood entered the house. She leaned back, casting webbing to catch the table, slipping up and sending the table back their way, crushing them both before making her way down an adjacent corridor.
<Melody> The man kicked down the door and ran into the room, and with a growl Melody stabbed the lamp into the back of his neck and he dropped with a scream, her eyes grew white as she started to drain a wispy, white energy from his body.
<Mayday> It was there the armored Spider-Girl saw Charles Xavier. She rushed to him, removing her mask and watching him with great panic, "P-Professor!" she called out, seeing his pain all over his face.
<Jolen> Jolen had found his element in this corner of the house a lot of the brood trying through the big hole in the wall, every one that ran over his tentacles was crushed and dragged into his stomach for fast digestion not wasting a single ounce of energy protecting his home.
<Viper> Viper's eyes were distracted from the mayhem on the lawn by a figure in the sky. Ah. That one was going to be a problem for her broodlings. She picked up another of her weapons and fired a couple of special rounds at the fiery humanoid. The CO2 foam coated it in moments and he dropped straight into the frozen lake. Oh dear. Perhaps he could swim? She smirked.
<Jonas> Jonas had trouble controlling his strength. Unable to pull his punches, the boy discovered that he was able to hit so hard he nearly hit a man's head off his shoulders. With each hit he gave, he could swear he felt the other person's bones breaking.
<ProfXavier> Charles was unaware of the outside world. His eyes opened wide with a gasp, his head knocking backward into the paneled wall. Blood exploded from his nose, his tear ducts, his ears.
<Ankka> By the time he was done, the rubble was gone, simply...disintegrated. He stepped back, eyes a solid white-blue and glowing as he blinked, energy snapping over him. "...I had no idea I could do that. Come on."
<Hisako> For a few minutes as she cut and tore through swathes of humans with her sword and force-fields - watching some of them simply be torn apart by what she assumed were Susan Storm's own - Hisako honestly believed she couldn't have become shocked by anything else that night.
<Melati> One of the Brood came crashing into the kitchen, landing hard on the ground, after the ferocious lizard female riding on its back had torn out the silvery wings. "I'm no longer one of you, creeps!" Melati snarled, finishing off the buzzing and flailing creature by stomping its head.
<Hisako> Not until a colossal, green-skinned, muscular humanoid tore through the ground floor wall and leapt over Hisako's head, making a blind, destructive charge against the enemy numbers.
<Jessica> "Good job!" Jess smiled at Ankka and hurried up the stairs, "Sebastian!?" she called as loudly as she could, "Sebastian?! Answer me!"
<Melody> The man's body fell limp, twitching and Mel concentrated, forcing some of the energy she'd collected back into the corpse, reanimating it, "Protect me and Harmony," she ordered her new minion, "kill anything that tries to hurt us," the zombie nodded and lumbered down the corridor, his mistress following him closely.
<Sue> Sue fortunately didn't look up and was therefore oblivious to the destruction of Johnny, her focus on defending the remains of the building.
<Angelina> The fall alone should have killed her, but Angel was still alive - and on the ground floor. She dragged herself back to her feet. A giant insect monster zoomed by a gaping hole in the outer wall near the rec room. "Dio... no..."
<Ankka> He picked Noriko up and carried her after Jess, automatically catching another blast of rubble with a crackling shield, Mjolnir forming in his free hand.
<Mayday> Mayday held Xavier, heart beating hard in her ears; was he dead? Had Professor Charles Xavier died!? In front of her!? She took deep breaths, checking his heartbeat and not feeling anything past her glove. She held her ear hard against his chest, sure she was making out a heartbeat past her own.
<Rott> Something broke audibly, following by the hiss of steam being violently ejected from the torn pipe. "This was not supposed to happen," Rott remarked, looking up from his control panel. Lots of bright lights had begun to flash aggressively all over the chaotic machine. "Oh no no no, you're not going to do this."
<Mayday> In a fit of panic, Mayday took her professor into her arms, looking around before making a sprint to the nearest exit: she needed to protect him. She didn't know how, but she had to.
<Viper> "Doctor... would you mind terribly introducing them to our other friend while I go and wake my darlings?" Viper got up from her seat, "This is getting rather boring."
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth pulled her self off the ground a second time staring at Johnny screaming at her. Her head hurt so much she could barely hear Jimmy over the screaming in her mind staring at him blankly with such fear in her eyes.
<Jimmy> "Liz! Get us to the cars! Go on girl!" Jimmy flailed at her as the gunfire passed over thier heads.
<Rott> One by one, the tanks containing the floating brains went dark, the wires jammed into the organic tissue giving off one final buzz before falling silent. "Uhm, we may have a little problem here," the doctor said into the intercom.
<Noriko> Noriko meanwhile had found her powers worked better then her voice so as they ran down the hall she pull extra lights on for them of exploded them over the bugs.
<Viper> "What little problem? Don't tell me you left him at home? I told you to make a list."
<ProfXavier> Something like a smile flickered over Charles Xavier's face. He'd failed his students in so many ways over the years, but he did what he could. And in this, he'd given his children a fighting chance.
<Hisako> In her mind - having detached from the situation as her body carried out the coup de grace on everything that came towards her - Hisako thanked Ryu Ogun for her new blade. Samidare's edge sang as it was guided through the air, effortlessly cleaving her enemies in twain.
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth felt the pressure in her head lift, the voice quietened and she didn't feel so shit. Getting up she could see Hisako defending the hole in the wall she needed to create a way to get Jimmy out of here.
<Mayday> "You're not dying," Mayday told the bleeding, limp man in her arms. "Alright? P-Professor? Xavier!" She shook him, looking up and spotting a group of armed soldiers - who had spotted her. She ducked, jumping to one side and into the other music room, "Damnit, Xavier, please don't die..."
<Toxic> Adam had been working on trying to stay airborne without tearing himself apart, but suddenly the abilities switched back on properly, to the tune of being able to blow up five people that time. He grinned, looking demonic behind the mask. "Playtime."
<Jimmy> "Liz? Lizbeth!? You back with me chick? Now ain't a good time to space out!"
<Rott> "No worries, your little pets are all accounted for and hungry for the flesh of innocents, just as you wished," Rott hastily appeased his superior, scrambling to flip switches and lever. "We just may have a teeny tiny problem with our, uhm, psychic back up here." He let out a scream when something exploded, showering the inside of the truck with burning debris.
<Elizabeth> Leg dragging horribly now she picked him up once more ignoring the pain as she always did and carried him over to one of the jeeps.
<Mayday> The redhead sniffled to herself, placing him down next to Rachel's bass guitar, trying not to think of its owner and her fate, "Wait here, Professor. Please don't die, because I can't...we can't do this without you."
<Viper> "I warned you they needed better shielding. You should not have left it behind in Madripoor but you insisted on saving that ridiculous pink hair instead." She rolled her eyes, turning a few dials so that she could give orders to her silver babies.
<Mayday> In a beat, Mayday had left the room, leaping into the gunfire: her senses sharpened again after their unexplained blurring earlier, she dodged bullets in motion, striking back with everything she had.
<Jessica> "Sebastian?!" Jess called again, getting more and more frantic, a blast took out another wall and she curled up with her hands over her ears and then she screamed, Kevin's lifeless body staring back at her.
<Angelina> She was forced to hide from another of the brood, then disarmed a scruffy man with a beaten-up automatic weapon. Angel grabbed it, breaking from cover to fire on the brood.
<Elizabeth> Mind dragging, the door open Jimmy got dropped into the driver's seat while she stumbled to the boot for the first aid kit.
<Hisako> Her armor growing larger, Hisako stopped her relentless cutting, raising her katana horizontally to display the scarlet liquid dripping off of the shear white silver edge. Dead eye seeming to look into the hearts of the rabvle of men around her she spoke the word "Korosu..."
<Jimmy> Jimmy landed ... on something soft .... and angrywithclawsargh! Friday the cat jumped into the passenger seat and hissed at him, then a small voice piped up from the well, "What happened to your legs!?"
<Hisako> A moment later, her armor bought its huge blade across, red gore spattering the green grass, dying the area crimson.
<Jimmy> He looked down and saw that weird green kid from the attic ... wait, this was good! "Nevermind that! You wanna get out of here alive your gonna have to help me drive, okay?" he told the kid, who smiled suddenly, "I get to drive!?"
<Cassie> A gasp signaled Cassandra's return to consciousness, her violet eyes flaring with eerie light as the the revitalising energy rushed through her body, draining away the debilitating weakness she had felt just before. The shadows drew close around her, lifting her back up into the air, ready to guard her and her friends from anyone foolish enough to get in her way.
<Jimmy> "Yeah, yeah sure, I need you to press the pedals, LIZ!? you coming babe!?"
<Sue> Sue looked around at the movement, smiling happily, "Cassie! You're okay!" That was a relief.
<Mayday> Mayday returned to Charles' side in the music room, her hands bloody from the faces she'd punched. She'd kept herself from killing, so there was victory in that. She lifted him again, stepping out into the hall and doubling back, looking for an exit where there were allies to cover them.
<Elizabeth> Leg bandaged as best she could she got back to the drivers seat and realised she hadn't opened the door but ripped it clean off. "Jimmy, I'm going to create a hole in the wall, you and... these guys... are going to drive for it. There's a ton of money in my locker at work get yourself somewhere safe ok?"
<Jimmy> "I'll head for Jack's club, meet us there," he hesitated for a moment then grabbed the front of Liz's shirt and dragged her in for a kiss, "One for luck?"
<Hisako> Turning all the way around to look up at the mansion, Hisako spotted the gathering shadows and let out a soft sigh; Cassandra was alright, that was good. She turned back, more raging men and women armed with makeshift weapons coming towards her. She fell to her knees, shoulders slumping. She couldn't keep fighting.
<Jonas> Jonas had moments of full strength and moments of being a punching bag. Half hte time he was bleeding and trying to crawl away, the other half he was kicking and punching people. It was only after something had changed in the air that he stopped feeling weakened that he was able to kick ass properly. He wrestled giant bugs!
<Angelina> Angel saw them - one of the younger students carrying Xavier's limp body. "Get to the basement levels, bella! There are tunnels!" She worked toward them, spraying the hall with bullets.
<Melati> Healing any wound almost as quickly as she received it, Melati resembled the ferocious predators that she was fighting, her claws tearing through the Brood as they swarmed her. Any human opponent had long learned his lesson to stay clear of rampaging lizard girl.
<Mayday> Mayday blinked at the voice, nodding in the vague direction of the shadowy female, not quite registering who it was, "O-ok! I will!!" she called over, taking a minute to recall how to get to the basement before darting down another hall.
<Elizabeth> Grabbing Jimmy's shirt back he got the snog of his life. "I'll meet you there and you better have a bottle of whiskey waiting for me." Rubbing his head for luck before moving as fast as she could towards the wall a shield going around the Jeep.
<Hisako> Hisako's armor shrank down, appearing as a crouched samurai, arms up and deflecting the blows from the rioting group assaulting her. She looked up at them weakly behind the glowing psionic frame, sighing again.
<Toxic> Adam was tearing apart any who came within his eyeline, and cackling with it. He'd been lucky so far, but there was only so lucky he could stay, being a flying target and easily picked out with the blood around him. He heard the shot hit before he felt it, a sharp, intense agony that blossomed over the side of his face and splattered his blood across the ground beneath him before he automatically caught the bleeding and stopped it.
<Jimmy> "I'll hold you to that, that's a date. Stay safe!" He called back to her as Leech 'ewwwwww'd' in the drivers well, "Peddle to the metal kid! Let's see if we can't run some of these bastards over on the way out!" The Jeep screamed out of the garage, sending a group of brood flying into the air as it sped across the lawn and smashed through the gates, and the two boys and cat were gone.
<Toxic> That didn't save his sight, though, left eye cutting out and leaving him half-blind, the left side of his face a gory mess as he drifted to the ground and curled up in silent agony.
<Danger> "I register more hostile forces incoming," Danger reported, her senors sweeping the area around the mansion as she picked off enemy soldiers with pin-point accuracy, her built in weaponry firing discharging repeatedly. "I strongly advise a tactical retreat." Even now, she put great care to only target non-vital areas.
<Ankka> He got them out of the lower levels, somehow losing Jess in the process and as soon as he was able got up into the air and shielded as his armour began to form over him.
<Mayday> Mayday gasped, falling against a wall on the way to the basement as she caught her breath; she'd forgotten she was wearing an earpiece. She crouched, using her shoulder - since her hands were full of Xavier - to switch hers on, ["Danger! It's Mayday, can you secure the basement level!?"]
<Dai> A line of flame shot across the lawn and into the woods, the trees exploding into flame and charred bugs everywhere as the thirty-foot flying lizard swooped past, the bullets bouncing harmlessly off her armored skin.
<Angelina> The bullets to the face had the intended effect on the brood, but it collided with the already unstable ceiling of the hall and blocked her escape. Swearing in rapid Italian, Angel picked her way to the opening in the wall, her bare feet already cut and bleeding. Her wings felt like fire.
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth forced herself onwards smashing the brood with bits of masonry hands glowing sas she directed the stuff and went on got to close got slashed with a beam of purple in her hand. Slowly but surely she got to Hisako's side, shield around the Jeep dropping as it got to far away.
<Sue> Sue vented her frustration at a particularly retarded group of LFRers and ragequit before switching characters to go and nuke some things until she felt better. People were idiots. At least she could drink in her room.
<Toxic> Adam was, as was Adam's wont, making art. Rather than being the blur that occasionally creeped the hell out of - or straight-up terrified - the new students, he was in his black and green ensemble in the rec room and apparently making a tree out of cheese. All sorts of different cheese, in fact, and it was about three feet high. He was wearing one of his gasmasks to deal with the overwhelming (for him) scent, though. Couldn't be too careful.
<Calvin> Calvin was sitting on the shoulder of Hobbes out in the X-hangar, blowtorching an antenna to his big pink friends' shoulder. It would allow him to listen to Tokyo FM while fighting the forces of evil (TM).
<Jimmy> "I can't believe that asshole stomped on me! I mean I know I'm fuckin' short but that's just takin' the PISS mate!" Jimmy was still not letting it go that Scott had stomped him. not that you could blame him, he was stick in a wheelchair now which left him looking like Prof X Jr. it just wasn't sexy!
<Jessica> Jess was rather enjoying her time in the Danger Room. Sure, she'd mostly done this backwards having already performed the field test of the costume Viper had sent her but still. She could go all out on the simulations though so that was better.
<Toxic> Adam side-eyed the bald guy with epic eyebrows. "I don't know. It's made you slightly more tolerable." He picked up a tube of squeezy cheese and used it to glue another slice of brie onto the 'trunk'.
<DrSummers> Scott was in his office, catching up on some articles that might be useful on DNA. He flipped over a page. It was quiet here, and he was glad of it. He looked at the postcard on his desk, from Cecilia. She was in Morocco with Fabian. They'd deserved a good vacation. Having buggy people down here had been unnerving, and he was thankful to Broo for helping with a cure.
<Melati> "As much as I miss having some additional arms, it's good to be able to hold your own beer again," Melati remarked as she returned from the kitchen, popping open her bottle with the claw of her thumb. The cap clattered to the floor, going ignored for now, while she raised the bottle to take a sip of the cooled drink. "Aw yeah, I missed that the most."
<Johnathon> "To be fair, Jim, if the guy grows, everybody is basically short. I think he has got the most Freudian powers of us all." Said the man who stuck holes everywhere while painting the news on canvas. He had decided to go for the impressionist approach.
<Callie> Callie was upstairs in her room on her second bottle of wine. She'd given up on the glass and was drinking right from the bottle. She'd been turned into a bug. That wasn't something she could live through. Drowning it in good wine helped her forget the memories.
<Jonas> Jonas was laying in the rec room, a stack of old comics next to him, going through them all one by one. "Well you can always go to that teacher that can heal you, Anna... something." Jonas told Jimmy.
<Melati> "Or ask Danger and Calvin if they could fix you up with some nifty robot parts," Melati suggested, raising her bottle to Jimmy. "I'm sure they'd be eager to give you a legs up."
<Kevin> Kevin was hammering a piece of metal down into a shapeless mass. It was something to do to keep himself occupied.
<Mick> Mick was currently trying to work a mouse with his left arm, the right...well, missing below the elbow, thanks to the knife-shields or whatever they'd been. He finally swore and pushed himself up, heading for the rec room and a break, trying not to scratch the stump - or the heavy scar on his face.
<Jimmy> "Badum-tish," Jimmy deadpanned at Mel, before scratching his hairless chin, "Though ... I dunno, maybe I could get spider-bot legs? That would be fukkin' awesome."
<Calvin> "Don't worry, Hobbey, it won't interfere with your anime downloads. Though I just hope the FBI will neve rfind you, because I am not paying the fine then."
<Broo> Broo was down in the labs, the whole place looking more like a scrapyard than anything else with all the machines and gizmos he had gutted for parts. The bug boy hummed while he worked, typing on the computer hooked up to the gadget he was getting close to ready for testing.
<Toxic> Adam hummed happily as he smoothed the next layer of cheese. "Hai guys. Wow, lots of people today, and I even recognise some of you!" There was movement in the mass of dreads, a tiny black face poking out of the nest and staring before there was an unimpressed growl.
<Sue> Sue snorted at a comment on teamspeak then proceeded to choke on her drink. "Nooooo I'm dying and it's all your fault! Argh! Too many rabbits! Get off get off! Little bastards!" She hammered a few buttons and smiled as things exploded on her screen. "Ah. Better."
<Cassie> Sitting outside in the shade cast by the patio roof, Cassandra let her legs dangle off the railing as she enjoyed the last moments of faint sunlight before dusk. Looking up from the book resting in her lap, she gazed into the distance. Usually the onset of darkness was one of her favourite times of the day, but today she couldn't shake that eerie feeling in the back of her mind.
<ProfXavier> Charles had been working on paperwork in his office. Now, he dozed peacefully, his glasses perched on the tip of his nose, his hands folded on his desk.
<Viper> Viper completed the final checks and smiled to herself. Everything was in place. Taking up a seat in her chosen spot, she activated the comms. "When you are ready, Doctor, let the educating begin."
<Angelina> In her bedroom, Angel tried on a pair of new pair of Louis Vuittons. Springing up from the bed, she checked her reflection in the full-length mirror and gave her wings a slight buzz.
<Jonas> Closing the current comic book and dropping it on the 'done' pile, Jonas picked up another one from the 'to read' stack. "So.. why aren't there more vigilantes in the city?" he asked, paging through that comic. "I mean... there's how many mutants by now in the world, even in New York, you'd think some of them would start up their own superhero agenda."
<Toxic> Adam glanced at comic-boy, handing up a tiny bit of cheese to the ball of brooding evil in his dreads. "Maybe we're the only one stupid enough to try." He shrugged. "Fuck knows we take enough shit for it."
<Rott> The good doctor looked up from his machine, a chaotic mess of wires, pipes, and tubes, all crammed into the back of the large truck. The fiendish glee was plastered across his face, the spark of madness glimmering in his eyes behind the tinted shades. "Always ready for you, my dear," he replied, reaching for the big levers attached to the control panel. "School's out, my little piggies! Time to start the real lesson."
<Jessica> Jess put her hand through the head of a simulation and sighed at the irritating noise that reminded her killing people was bad. She rolled her eyes behind her mask and venomblasted a couple more, probably with too much power.
<Calvin> Johnathon> "Haven't you noticed all the crazies we have to deal with? Who would want to do that in their spare time?," Johnathon told Jonas.
<Dai> Dai was sat in her office, desperately trying to find some sort of resource she could use to help counsel the recently ... transformed. She'd knew being a counselor to mutant kids would be a challenge but she never though she'd be Googling 'hive bug mentality psychology'.
<Jack> While over on the other side of town, Jack was preparing the club to open in a couple hours' time.
<Rott> He yanked down the lever, and the insane invention came to life with an unpleasant hum, bubbling noises coming from the tubes filled with odd liquids. The wires stuck to the disembodied brains within starting cackling with power. Rott couldn't help but give a hysterical laugh.
<Mick> "Tell me 'bout it." His voice was slightly slurred still, though he'd been told the slight brain-damage from having his carapace broken open would heal itself with time. He sat down carefully, giving in and scratching the cover that protected his stump. It didn't help, but he could pretend, right? "Anyone got a pen?"
<ProfXavier> Charles snorted in his sleep, swatting at what may have been a buzzing insect.
<Kael> Kael was on his back on his bed, on the phone to his parents in Russia, when he winced, rubbing his eyes and a hand going to his stomach. He suddenly felt oddly sick.
<Jonas> "Think there should be a pen at the phone," Jonas said, thumbing over his head towards the old landline phone gathering dust.
<Melody> Melody on the other hand was having much better luck with her Google search, turned out you could get almost anything on the internet and that included chew toys for tigers, Harmony was napping in her (slightly mangled) cot.
<Cassie> It started as an unsettling shiver crawling up her spine, a sense of unease welling up in her mind. Moments later the serene surroundings began to spin in front of her eyes as her vision started to blur. The book she had been holding hit the ground, only moments before Cassandra tipped backwards and slammed onto the patio floor.
<Sue> Sue frowned at her computer screen. "Uh guys, I think that all-nighter was a mistake, imma go take a nap. Feel a bit funny. See you later..." she logged out and closed her laptop, getting up to crawl over to the bed.
<Jonas> Jonas blinked and squinted, trying to focus on the comic's speech bubbles, before he had to put the book down and rub his eyes.
<Toxic> Adam, on the other hand, headtilted at his cheese tree, frowning as his bright blue eyes went a little distant. His gloved fingers blurred for a moment, before the blur cut out. "Okay, who broke the world? Because I know I haven't missed a dose but my head's doing that weird thing it usually does when I don't take the drugs."
<Melody> The tiny demon baby frowned in her sleep and started to make pathetic little 'hup-hup' noises. Mel frowned, shutting down the laptop and going to stand up, "What's the matter ba-uuugh ...." suddenly not feeling so good, had Fabian's kitchen experiments finally given her food poisoning?
<Callie> Callie wondered when the clouds had gotten so thick. She went to the window, and looked at the flowerbed below. She smiled. They were so pretty. She made them grow bigger and bigger, their roots crawling up the wall carrying them toward her until she could smell them. Their scent made her feel ill and she made it to the bathroom before she vomited. "All that nice wine," she moaned then crawled back to her bed, hoping to sleep whatever it was off. It was some horrible aftermath of the hive mind thing, she was sure.
<Melati> "Either they made the beer stronger while I was out being some bug monster, or I just can't handle this stuff as I used to," Melati remarked, eying the bottle in her hand as she had to reach out with her free hand to grab something for support.
<Angelina> For the first time in her life, Angel lost her balance on her four-inch heels. She staggered forward and had to catch herself with a hand against the mirror.
<Jimmy> Jimmy stopped mid-sip then glared at his glass, "You and me bo-" he froze, staring at the unremarkable far wall, then started screaming at the top of his lungs.
<Johnathon> Johnathon just lost his balance, noticing a wrong line from his paintbrush Noooooooooooooooooooo! before keeling over.
<Jimmy> "JESUSFUCKIN'CHRISTONASALAMILOOKATTHATTHINGCOMMINGOUTOFTHEWALLIT'SLOOKINGATMEWHATTHEFUCK!!!?"
<Mick> Mick reached for the pen and nearly fell off his seat. Ugh, he was looking forward to his balance not fucking up. He winced at the scream, glaring at Jimmy for a moment before blinking. "Huh...Peanut..."
<Jimmy> "THE EYES! THE EYES! SO MANY EYES WITH TEETH!"
<Calvin> Calvin just stopped the blowtorch and fell backwards. He was lucky that Hobbes, seemingly unimpressed by the going ons, caught him.
<Jessica> Jess yelped as one of her charges got conducted back to her. "Motherfucker!" It didn't hurt as much as it should have but something was off. That shouldn't have happened. "End program...." She shook her head, "Danger, are you there?"
<Danger> Deep down in the school's basement, Danger paused her current task when an unusual occurrence piqued her attention. One by one, the mansion's security systems reported failures and went offline. Had she been able to frown, she undoubtedly would have done so at this point.
<Kevin> Kevin looked up sharply. Had there been someone there? He put the heated iron in the forge and the hammer away before going to investigate. "Hello?" He opened door after door, finding he was alone. He turned to go back to what he'd been doing, but found he was lost. He staggered down the hall, trying to remember where the smithy was.
<Jimmy> He attempted to standup to run away from whatever it was she was seeing and fell flat on his face, half screaming, half sobbing into the carpet as he tried to crawl away from whatever it was he was seeing, "What the fuck are you people doing! It's right behind you! RUN!"
<Jonas> Jonas, being slightly confused and distracted thanks to Jimmy's screaming, also tried to push himself up from where he was laying, only to find that the couch was made out of some kind of sticky goop that was pulling him down. "Du--furk" he said, even having trouble speaking.
<Viper> After the tear gas was well and truly spread, Viper gave her next instruction, "My dear friends, now is the time to strike at our common enemy. We will support you, I assure you."
<ProfXavier> Charles came awake with a snort, immediately turning to look at the window. He screamed, hands clutching at his head.
<DrSummers> Scott sat back, rubbing his temples. His eyes hurt, a headache seeming to blossom. This hadn't happened in a while. He realized that he might actually blow his glasses, so he went to the locker room to fetch his visor. That helped somewhat, but it was still not good. He moaned as his headache spiked, and he went back to the medlab for some painkillers, collapsing on the floor in the hall.
<Melati> Even with the aid of her tail, Melati was unable to keep her balance, tipping over to fall into the coffee table. The shattering glass was the least of her concerns, however, and neither were the screaming students around her. "Fuck, my beer!" she yelled, flailing to catch the spilling bottle. But all hope was lost, and it just seeped into the carpet. "Nooooo!"
<Jessica> Jess headed for the door of the Danger Room with some difficulty. She could barely walk but her flight powers were acting up. Something was very wrong. "Hellooooo? Is anyone down here....?" she called along the hall.
<Angelina> Angel retched, the acid hitting the mirror and dissolving the surface. Her reflection bubbled and ran. "Dio..."
<Jonas> "Cawnt...muv...." Jonas struggled and felt like he was sinking. He saw chains snaking around him, getting tighter and tighter, squeezing him the deeper he sunk into the couch.
<Sue> Sue glanced out of the window, it was very foggy. She thought for a moment that she saw a shape moving down there and instinctively shielded herself.... and felt instantly better. "The hell...?" She lowered the shield and felt sick again so back up they went. "Sense this does not make... maybe I'm not using my powers enough..."
<Toxic> Adam blinked at the screaming/flailing students. "Huh..." Him seeing things and such was normal. Everyone else on the other hand, well, unless they'd been lying and he wasn't the only hallucinating nutcase...he stood up, hands out as his balance wavered a little, before things started going dark. "Ooooh. Okay. Badness...and for once I'm the one not seeing shit." He went to kick up into the air and ended up whimpering as he gave himself a nosebleed. "Aw
<Melody> Melody succeeded in reaching the cot just as Harmony woke up and started to cry properly, reaching for her mother, "Baby, you have a bad dream?" There was movement out of the corner of her eyes and she looked, the colour draining out of her face, ".... Nathan?"
<Danger> Weighing her options, Danger went with the most sensible choice and triggered the mansion-wide alarm, before engaging the intercom. "This is Danger, speaking to all students and staff, with a preliminary warning. You may be experiences some unexpected events. I'm still evaluating the data. Please remain calm and await further instructions."
<Jessica> Oh God, that sound! She put her hands over her ears. "Turn it off! For God's sake! Turn it off!"
<Jolen> Jolen was running through the struggling students and looking for Toxic. They had to get out of here, he'd hadn't felt so scared since that bear!
<Jimmy> There he was, face unshaven and still wearing that stupid cap, smiling at her, and she fell over backwards from the combination of sickness and shock, "bu' ... but you can't ... I saw ... they killed you! I saw them put you in the ground!"
<Mick> Mick heard the warning, smiling at Danger's voice. Just sit tight, they'd be fine.
<Calvin> Hobbes put Calvin into the pilot seat in his chest. He would be safe for now. It was time to kick some ass. He stepped out of the hangar.
<Cassie> Outside, Cassandra had managed to cling to consciousness, struggling to push herself up on her elbows with little success. Rolling over to lie on her stomach, she was able to raise her head, trying to focus her shaky vision long enough to figure out what was happening. The strange fog had gotten thicker, and it also seemed to draw closer to the mansion.
<Noriko> Noriko was still in the med lab going through the last of the physicals now she was changed back, because normal food was still making her throw up. The fear ramming through her had her running to a corner and hiding under a blanket cringing from Dangers warning.
<Cassie> She believed to spot figures moving through it.
<Jimmy> Dai frowned at Danger's warnings, looking around her, she felt a bit fluey but what was that robot on about?
<Toxic> Adam decided using his abilities when they were giving him nosebleeds wouldn't be a good idea - no internal bleeds for him, kay thanks. He kept the gasmask on though as there was a heavy, muffled sound of an explosion somewhere. "Was that real? Anyone else hear that?"
<Broo> Broo stumbled and half crawled out the lab's doors, looking down the corridor. He could have sworn he had heard Jess' voice, but what he saw was something entirely different. He started screaming.
<DrSummers> Callie had passed out, so the alarms didn't bother her, but they made Scott scream in agony. It was too much. He managed to crawl into the medbay and to his office. Kevin was running through the school, having taken off his bracelets when the siren went off. He had to protect himself. He ran blindly, holding out his arms in front of him.
<Ankka> Ankka was in the lab with Noriko - worrying over her, as usual - and he hid with the girl, pulling her into his lap. "Hush, sveetheart, it's fine."
<Jessica> Jess looked down the hall at the screaming, her eyes focusing on Broo as her vision swam around him, "Broo? Are you okay?!" She pulled herself together and hurried toward him.
<ProfXavier> Struggling through the pain in his mind, Charles clutched the edge of the desk. Prying his eyes open, he could see the fog on the grounds through the window. Stay calm, my students, he tried to send to them. He started to roll toward the door.
<Noriko> Noriko whimpered as Summers ran past, clinging to Ankka as she was pulled onto his lab, squeaking pathetically as words weren't quite available yet.
<Broo> The little mutant stumbled back, shuffling and crawling to get away from the thing coming towards him. He had never been so afraid in his life, and he couldn't figure out a way of getting away fast enough. Unless. Broo stumbled towards the device he was working on.
<Danger> The acoustic element of the alert died down after a while, leaving only the red light flashing incessantly. Danger was accessing all systems at once, trying to restart the security protocols, or least receive a camera feed from the outside.
<Jessica> "Broo! Come back!" She hurried to catch up with him, stumbling with the dizziness and catching herself on the wall. She had to stop for a moment to get her balance.
<Jimmy> Calm? There was a fucking Clive Barker thing coming for them all out the wall! YOU stay calm motherfucker!
<Calvin> Hobbes stepped in front of various humans, holding up what appeared to be weapons, aiming at him. He kicked one of then all the way to Massachusetts. Then they started firing the rockets.
<Viper> "Fire at will, friends." Viper smiled as she heard the sounds of grenades leaving barrels.
<Broo> He was having difficulty concentrating on the handheld device, trying to punch in numbers, before pulling the plugs out of from the computer, crawling under his desk, and hitting the thing to start working already. He leaned forward to see i the thing was still coming for him.
<Angelina> Regaining her balance, Angel hovered in the room. She glanced out the window on the way to the door and stopped. There were men on the lawn. Soldiers. Near the woods.
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth came wandering out of her room JD bottle in hand and swigging it occasionally, every time her shields went down she felt like death itself was in her mind so she needed to take the edge off. Trying to hide the panic with white knuckles and alcohol as she walked calmly down the hall looking for Jimmy
<Melati> "Fucking hell, this is not a drill," Melati stated the obvious, getting back on her feet as soon as she noticed the dizzying effects lessen for some reason. "We're under attack!"
<Toxic> Adam shook his head at the students, eyes narrowed at the suddenly dark outside. Even through the malfunctioning powers, he could feel there were heartbeats there shouldn't be. Pretty sure I'm the only calm one here right now, Prof. And that's saying something. He kicked the tentacle that was - apparently - trying to hold his ankle with a snort. Too used to this shit.
<Toxic> "No shit, Mel. Dunno about you but my mutanty is borked, so I'm gonna go take a look outside. If you see my boyfriend, could you get his gorgeous betentacled ass in my direction, please?"
<Jessica> Jess rounded the doorway, her eyes sweeping the room as fast as they were able with the dizziness for her brother. "Broo! We have to le-" She cut off as he disappeared, "Noooo! Broo!" Where had he gone?!
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth spotted jimmy and ran for him the *monster* over him was wrenched off the ground and slammed backwards like a tennis ball. "You better be a-fucking-live Jimmy!"
<Jimmy> "My whole fuckin' life flashed in front of my eyes," he moaned, "it was really fuckin' boring!"
<Jessica> The sound of an explosion above drew Jess' attention next. "Oh hell... Is anyone else down here?" she called into the medlab.
<Calvin> Hobbes swatted the people firing him aside, not taking particular care that they survived. This was an all-out siege. A stupid siege, considering that he was a huge robot with lasers and the science-equivalent of molting lava being jettisoned from his mouth, but still a siege.
<Cassie> Something exploding not too far from her was all the motivation Cassandra needed to fight her way back into an upright position - just in time to see the men with gas masks advancing through the cover of smoke. She didn't even need to see the weapons they trained at her to know that they came with ill intent.
<Elizabeth> "I'm hardly surprised." She grinned dragging him off the floor and dusting him off. "Glad to see you de-bugged and- She was cut off as the wall next to the blew inwards and knocked her flying.
<Sue> Sue reinforced her shields and gathered up her laptop. Priorities. Her life was on that thing, it was not getting left behind. She stuffed it in a rucksack and pulled it onto her back before heading out into the corridor.
<Jimmy> "Elizabeth!"
<Cassie> Gunfire tore into the wood of the patio, showering her with splinters. The raven haired girl shielded her face, instinctively calling upon the darkness to protect her. The swirling shadows curled around her, more erratically than usual.
<Ankka> "Kyllä! I mean yes - me and Noriko are here. Is that you, Jess?"
<Jessica> "Yes! We need to get out of here!" She looked around the medlab again, "Did you see where Broo went?"
<Noriko> Noriko cringed at the next explosion and clung harder to Ankka, she could hear Jess but she wasn't getting over the fear to easily.
<Toxic> Adam went to open the back door, before the wall folded in on itself. "Okay, I'll use that one. Oh come on, piss off, I see worse when I miss a dose." He muttered at the hallucinations. "There's no burning trees with bodies on meathooks, for one. Ohey, they have grenade launchers! I want one!"
<Ankka> "No." He picked Noriko up, holding her close, frowning worridly at Jess. "And my powers aren't vorking right. Is he still down here?"
<Angelina> She reached the window in time for it to blow inwards, showering her with broken glass. Angel screamed, her wings ripped in a half dozen places as she fell to the floor.
<Jonas> The explosion rocked Jonas' hallucination away, freeing him to move, but also causing him to be covered in debris where he lay. He gasped for air as he rolled over to the floor to push himself up.
<Melati> "Less panicking, more ass-kicking!" Melati was well on her way to engage whoever was attacking them, diving through the rec room window the moment the bullets started ripping through the door. "You'll regret coming to this party uninvited, pals."
<Jimmy> The explosion rocked the building and Harmony started to scream. Mel forced herself onto her hands ad knees and when she looked up Nathan was gone, "Th-the shiii-ugar?" She corrected herself before getting to her feet, picking up her baby.
<Jessica> "I... I don't know... he disappeared...." And she was so worried. She cast her eyes around the room again, "I don't see him at all... I'll just have to hope he's somewhere safe..."
<Kevin> The explosion happened behind him - Kevin turned only to be gunned down by a machine gun. Callie never woke up, so she died where she lay, a bullet in her head.
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth struggled to get up from under the rubble pinning her legs but a pissed off yell soon got the rubble flying out the window so she could stagger to her feet. "So I was thinking maybe we should get out of here Jimmy?”
<ProfXavier> Charles rolled into the hall, searching for his students and staff.
<Ankka> He nodded, kissing Noriko's forehead before looking up as he heard explosions. "Odin's eye. Ve're being attacked. Come on, you can both stay with me, ve need to find the others."
<Jimmy> ".... Y'know I'm thinking that's a good idea babes," Jimmy managed, rolling onto his back, "Are you okay?"
<Sue> Sue was pretty safe in her bubble and was glad for this. But she was still a visible target. She fixed that. And now... outside. She was a paladin dammit. Paladins were badass. And she was a fucking tank. Kill all the things! Well... knock them out.
<Jolen> One of the grenades smashed right through a window but rather exploding on the floor Jolen got to take it straight to the chest plant person exploding all over the walls.
<Jessica> Jess nodded at Ankka, "I... I need to find Sebastian... please..."
<Kael> The werewolf, at the first explosion, had done what he did best - hide, shaking and whimpering, under the bed. Oh hell no he wasn't doing this! Not this time! He forced himself out, staggering as the floor rocked under him from another explosion. Going onto all fours, he belted out of the room with a yelp.
<Dai> The wall in Dai's office imploded, burying her in rubble.
<DrSummers> Scott opened his visor and blew the rubble off him and the desk. It was easy, as his power seemed to have gone haywire, and he'd taken out a large chucking of the two floors above him. Hopefully there hadn't been students there.
<ProfXavier> The explosion slammed his chair into the far wall of the hallway, and Charles spilled out into the floor.
<Johnathon> Spot scrambled about. He had to ge tout of here...where was a good spot he had left lying around, as far from here as possible? Oh right, Vito's!
<Mayday> At the sound of alarm, Mayday had immediately headed below to the basement level of the mansion, suiting up and emerging again only to engage in combat with the attackers on ground level. Head still spinning, she slowly regained consciousness, eyes adjusting to the odd light and visage behind her armored mask.
<Viper> "I think it's time for some more entertainment...." Viper took aim and fired the special grenades right at the building. They exploded and showered the area, friend and x-man alike. "Open the crates. Release the broodlings."
<Toxic> Adam blurred out of the way of another grenade, catching it and throwing it back. Oh wait, he shouldn't be...oh well. He shrugged as a crater was blown in the grounds. People wanted them dead, well, he knew how to answer that one.
<Cassie> Staggering under the relentless fire, Cassandra followed her natural instinct and attempted to teleport someplace save - except that she didn't seem to be able to summon the portal. Through the smoke, she saw a familiar lizard-like shake tearing through the front line of the attackers.
<Mayday> The armor suit had kept Mayday alive when the entire rec-room had been destroyed, wall cascading atop her and three of the rioting attackers she was facing. Judging by the lack of noise coming from the rest of the debris, she assumed only she'd survived it.
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth brushed herself off and nodded looking at the now broken JD bottle in her hand. "Pissed off now actually." Kneeling down she opened her arms to him. "Come on I don't need my hands for anything so I can carry you shortarse."
<Angelina> Her wings were nearly useless, but she dragged herself to her feet and kicked off the beautiful shoes. Angel ran for the hall.
<Melody> What the fuck was going on? She went to the window and ducked down as soon as she saw the figures swarming across the lawn. They were being attacked!?
<Jimmy> "I ain't never gonna live this down," Jimmy slurred, but let Elizabeth pick him up, "Spider-bot looking pretty good right about now.”
<Mayday> Panic was not what Mayday felt. Her chest felt...almost depression and fear, and her head was still spinning as she forced herself up, using as much of her strength as she could to remove rock and rubble from her body and crawling away to compose herself. She sighed, trying not to cry.
<Rott> Back at their mobile base, Rott hurried to yank another lever. There was some screaming coming from outside the truck as some of the starved Brood decided there was enough time to snack on their handlers, before buzzing off towards their target as an enraged swarm of vicious claws and teeth. "Fly, my pretties! Fly!" The doctor cleared his throat. "I always wanted to say that..."
<Mick> Mick had managed to teleport out of the way of rubble, but he couldn't come back out of the wires properly, a barely-there shape outlined by blue lines. "Fuck!" He swore as his shape glitched. "Not good, this is not good-" A grenade hit the mass of line and stuck in the centre, and as it exploded, Mick glitched into white noise with an electronic shriek.
<Elizabeth> Taking a good grip on her friend she pushed herself to her feet and seeing none students running towards them screamed into their minds so hard their faces started bleeding and they ran face first into the floor, and stopped.
<Hisako> Ichiki Hisako had taken longer than the others to wake up. She recalled a haze of shouting, a terrifying sight of men entering her room and opening fire on the bed, and the instinctive flash of amber she'd released to protect herself.
<Melody> Melody looked down at her daughter, she was the only thing that mattered right now, they had to get out! She quickly grabbed the framed picture of Nate off her bedstand and held it close before grabbing a blanket to wrap it and her baby in, "Shush sweetie, momma's gonna keep you safe." A teleporter, she needed a teleporter!
<ProfXavier> Charles dragged himself to the wall and braced his back against it, grabbing his useless legs and tucking them close. He pulled the chair over him as a meager shell of protection. Then, he closed his eyes and focused on the enemy minds.
<Hisako> Hisako recalled lifting the Samidare. She recalled drawing it and she recalled shouts, protests and panic as she swung the blade. She recalled the warmth of blood and the horrific fear she'd felt as more and more of it spattered the walls.
<Johnathon> He grabbed his art supplies and went through one of his spots. There was too much shooting and exploding and...screeching here for an artist. Better to sit this out at Vito's, with a nice glass of absynthe. Maybe he'd also call the police.
<Melati> Melati soon was splattered in blood - some of it her own, but most of it came from her unlucky opponents. She couldn't care less about the source of either, pushing on even when bullet after bullet tore into her scaly hide. The pain only fueled her rage.
<Jessica> "Oh shit, wait!" Jess hurried back down the hall to the locker room, going to pick up her trophy from Japan. She wasn't about to leave that behind when she hadn't even played with it properly. "Okay, I'm good!"
<DrSummers> Scott got up and ran out to defend the school. Scott happened to look out of a gaping hole in the wall and saw a swarm of this insect-things. He tried to blast them out of the sky, and a couple of them dodged, changing their course to get him. They attacked, bursting through the opening.
<Jonas> Jonas had long ago pulled himself up and had joined Melati in kicking ass and chewing bubblegum, and he was all out of gum.
<Jolen> Jolen had been exploded into a wide range of bits and after a minute of mental confusion realise he could sense the rest of himself all over the place, pissed off at people attacking his home he encouraged a huge growth spurt.
<Hisako> However, Hisako didn't stop swinging the blade. She swung it when she saw someone get shot, she swung it when someone hurled a hatchet at her. She stabbed with it before an explosion removed two human figures from existence. And after she lost her left eye, she continued swinging until she couldn't for the pain.
<Toxic> Adam lifted his hands, testing his abilities. His eyes flared red and he smiled beautifically. "Everybody...hands up for DJ Toxic." He murmured. With that, there was a sudden, wonderful explosion that was definitely not from a grenade. And another. He had no problem killing, and the blood started whirling around him in ribbons.
<Dai> One of the goons stepped through the hole in Dai's office and heard her soft moan from under the rubble. Grinning to himself he went to pull the remains of her desk off her to finish the job, and he was still grinning as the jet of flame shot out as soon as she was uncovered, killing him instantly.
<Jolen> In the large hallway where he'd been hit a gigantic and angry plant monster was being built grabbing and ripping apart anything that didn't smell like his home until they found other bits and joined up, increasing size and speed as they went.
<Hisako> Having bandaged it to the best of her ability, Hisako staggered the halls, sword drawn and armor up around her, bloodstained white night gown dripping as she held her hand hard against her face, muttering prayers that the blood would stop pouring from her face as she looked for help.
<Cassie> Shrouded in unnatural darkness, Cassandra hovered slightly above ground, as she lashed out with several shadowy arms, toppling some of the attackers or lifting them off the ground - but they just kept coming. She had to defend this breach in the wall. Her friends were on the other side.
<Angelina> Angel ran down the hall, screaming when another blast brought down the upper floor, and the staircase.
<Jolen> As a majority of Jolen's body found itself and formed up he created a large face amidst the tentacles, eyes enough to really distinguish the enemy and using his form to defend this area of the hall, preventing people getting in via the hole in the wall.
<Ankka> He nodded to Jess. "Do you know vhere Shaw vould be?" He led them out of the room, immediately turning and shielding both the girls from a sudden spat of gunfire, the bullets pinging off him. The owner got a sudden electrical charge that blew him against the wall. "Too strong. They're messing with our abilities."
<Jessica> Jess secured the katana to her back then climbed up the wall, crawling along it to the stairs to find a way up for Annka and Nori. "Everything's collapsed, Ankka, we're stuck down here..."
<Dai> Dai couldn't remember being this furious, the tiny center of calm in her brain marveling at the carnage. The rest of her however was caught up in primal, feral rage. These people dare attack her home and her kids!? She struggled to wriggle free of the wreckage, her form growing in size, skin changing to a bright green and growing scaly as she squeezed out of the hole in the wall, another jet of flame from her growing snout immolating the bugs that attacked.
<Jessica> "He was teaching I think so in the classrooms somewhere... I don't know...." She venom blasted another FoH guy before he had a chance to aim.
<DrSummers> The last thought that Scott had was that he should have gone to visit his parents when they had asked him to. The bug things continued on their massacre down the hall, leaving Scott's body on the ground, his visor knocked off and his eyes open, staring at the ceiling.
<Hisako> It had taken her a while - a while to get over the fear of every shadow, every running person, thinking they were foe - but Hisako finally came upon Cassandra St. Commons, watching her defend the wall as best she could. She stepped forward, still limping as her depth perception betrayed the distance of her feet and the floor.
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth staggered down the hall clutching Jimmy, her leg seriously hurting and her mind going over the fact she'd forgotten two days worth of meds and apparently she deserved the pain. No not today she needed to stop this.
<Danger> Deeming it a lost cause, Danger gave up her attempts to activate the school's defenses. Clearly, a more hands on approach was called for. Leaving the automated systems in charge of the control room, she checked the power status of her robotic body and stepped through the door.
<Elizabeth> And the next idiot running at them was thrown so hard against the wall by Liz's powers he went through it and flew in a ragdoll arch to splatter on the drive.
<Melody> Melody peered outside her door into the smoking hallway, she heard the sound of feet running up through the smoke and gunshots. The attackers! think fast girl!
<Ankka> The huge Finn snorted, putting Noriko down beside Jess for a moment as he stared at the rubble. What he wouldn't give for Fabian... "Give me a moment." He concentrated, trying to find the power he'd touched on his last boost - and found it far, far too easily. Setting his hands against the rubble, he pushed, muscles bunching and the rubble simply breaking apart.
<Sue> Sue appeared beside Cassie, throwing up forcefields to confuse their enemies as they were unable to see them and ran right into them. "What the fuck is happening?!"
<Jimmy> "Look! Look! Cars! can you hotwire!" Jimmy flail pointed over Liz's shoulder at the garage.
<ProfXavier> Charles attacked the invading minds, recognizing one of them from his brief visits to the school. He'd had hopes for that one. Now, he struck him on the psychic plane.
<Calvin> Hobbes just stomped out hordes of creepy crawlies. Too bad he couldn't fit inside the mansion in order to help the students.
<Jessica> Jess put her arm around Nori for comfort, "We're going to be okay. The duck's got it."
<Cassie> An explosion detonated right in front of her, and even though her shadowy constructs took most of the hit, the force was enough to throw Cassandra's petite frame backwards. She crashed through some windows and doors, before her involuntary flight was stopped by a solid wall.
<Elizabeth> "No I can't drive for shit! Oh fuck it." Running at the whole in the wall she jumped out and prayed her powers let her down the drop gently. It didn't go so gently as her leg gave way when they landed.
<Hisako> Hisako blinked with her working eye, spotting Susan Storm past the blood and opening her dry mouth to say something, managing nothing. She stopped against a wall, taking a few deep breaths; her head felt light. She focused a force field as best she could inside her eye to stop what bleeding she could, standing as the explosion cast Cassandra aside.
<Melody> Melody grabbed a bedside lamp, wriggling the plug out of the wall and smashing the head off her desk to make an improvised shiv, hiding behind her door as the footsteps grew closer. They had one chance.
<Noriko> Noriko looked up at Jess and her eyes glowed between tiny squeaks. She wanted to help desperately but she was too scared.
<Toxic> Adam drifted off the ground, his orbiting blood snapping out and cutting through weapons, bugs and people alike, not particularly caring as he flicked a hand and slammed people away from him and other students. This was better.
<Hisako> Blade raised to one side, she made for the breach, her armor frame burning a hot scarlet as she leapt out of the gap.
<Jimmy> "Fuckin' useless woman! Get me to the cars! I can get them started but you'll have to drive or something!"
<Sue> "Cassie! Fuck!" Sue's eyes narrowed. Her forcefields broke apart and hundreds of razor sharp invisible fields flew at the enemies on the lawn.
<Calvin> A barrage of grenades hit Hobbes in teh chest, blowing a huge hole through him. Luckily they had missed Calvin by centimetres. Hobbes decide to leg it in order to protect his friend. He took off like a rocket.
<ProfXavier> Blood started to trickle from Charles' nose, and he trembled, though for no visible reason. These minds... were strong. But he was stronger, and his children were threatened.
<Mayday> Sliding along the floor, Mayday barely managed to dodge a table sent flying as two Brood entered the house. She leaned back, casting webbing to catch the table, slipping up and sending the table back their way, crushing them both before making her way down an adjacent corridor.
<Melody> The man kicked down the door and ran into the room, and with a growl Melody stabbed the lamp into the back of his neck and he dropped with a scream, her eyes grew white as she started to drain a wispy, white energy from his body.
<Mayday> It was there the armored Spider-Girl saw Charles Xavier. She rushed to him, removing her mask and watching him with great panic, "P-Professor!" she called out, seeing his pain all over his face.
<Jolen> Jolen had found his element in this corner of the house a lot of the brood trying through the big hole in the wall, every one that ran over his tentacles was crushed and dragged into his stomach for fast digestion not wasting a single ounce of energy protecting his home.
<Viper> Viper's eyes were distracted from the mayhem on the lawn by a figure in the sky. Ah. That one was going to be a problem for her broodlings. She picked up another of her weapons and fired a couple of special rounds at the fiery humanoid. The CO2 foam coated it in moments and he dropped straight into the frozen lake. Oh dear. Perhaps he could swim? She smirked.
<Jonas> Jonas had trouble controlling his strength. Unable to pull his punches, the boy discovered that he was able to hit so hard he nearly hit a man's head off his shoulders. With each hit he gave, he could swear he felt the other person's bones breaking.
<ProfXavier> Charles was unaware of the outside world. His eyes opened wide with a gasp, his head knocking backward into the paneled wall. Blood exploded from his nose, his tear ducts, his ears.
<Ankka> By the time he was done, the rubble was gone, simply...disintegrated. He stepped back, eyes a solid white-blue and glowing as he blinked, energy snapping over him. "...I had no idea I could do that. Come on."
<Hisako> For a few minutes as she cut and tore through swathes of humans with her sword and force-fields - watching some of them simply be torn apart by what she assumed were Susan Storm's own - Hisako honestly believed she couldn't have become shocked by anything else that night.
<Melati> One of the Brood came crashing into the kitchen, landing hard on the ground, after the ferocious lizard female riding on its back had torn out the silvery wings. "I'm no longer one of you, creeps!" Melati snarled, finishing off the buzzing and flailing creature by stomping its head.
<Hisako> Not until a colossal, green-skinned, muscular humanoid tore through the ground floor wall and leapt over Hisako's head, making a blind, destructive charge against the enemy numbers.
<Jessica> "Good job!" Jess smiled at Ankka and hurried up the stairs, "Sebastian!?" she called as loudly as she could, "Sebastian?! Answer me!"
<Melody> The man's body fell limp, twitching and Mel concentrated, forcing some of the energy she'd collected back into the corpse, reanimating it, "Protect me and Harmony," she ordered her new minion, "kill anything that tries to hurt us," the zombie nodded and lumbered down the corridor, his mistress following him closely.
<Sue> Sue fortunately didn't look up and was therefore oblivious to the destruction of Johnny, her focus on defending the remains of the building.
<Angelina> The fall alone should have killed her, but Angel was still alive - and on the ground floor. She dragged herself back to her feet. A giant insect monster zoomed by a gaping hole in the outer wall near the rec room. "Dio... no..."
<Ankka> He picked Noriko up and carried her after Jess, automatically catching another blast of rubble with a crackling shield, Mjolnir forming in his free hand.
<Mayday> Mayday held Xavier, heart beating hard in her ears; was he dead? Had Professor Charles Xavier died!? In front of her!? She took deep breaths, checking his heartbeat and not feeling anything past her glove. She held her ear hard against his chest, sure she was making out a heartbeat past her own.
<Rott> Something broke audibly, following by the hiss of steam being violently ejected from the torn pipe. "This was not supposed to happen," Rott remarked, looking up from his control panel. Lots of bright lights had begun to flash aggressively all over the chaotic machine. "Oh no no no, you're not going to do this."
<Mayday> In a fit of panic, Mayday took her professor into her arms, looking around before making a sprint to the nearest exit: she needed to protect him. She didn't know how, but she had to.
<Viper> "Doctor... would you mind terribly introducing them to our other friend while I go and wake my darlings?" Viper got up from her seat, "This is getting rather boring."
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth pulled her self off the ground a second time staring at Johnny screaming at her. Her head hurt so much she could barely hear Jimmy over the screaming in her mind staring at him blankly with such fear in her eyes.
<Jimmy> "Liz! Get us to the cars! Go on girl!" Jimmy flailed at her as the gunfire passed over thier heads.
<Rott> One by one, the tanks containing the floating brains went dark, the wires jammed into the organic tissue giving off one final buzz before falling silent. "Uhm, we may have a little problem here," the doctor said into the intercom.
<Noriko> Noriko meanwhile had found her powers worked better then her voice so as they ran down the hall she pull extra lights on for them of exploded them over the bugs.
<Viper> "What little problem? Don't tell me you left him at home? I told you to make a list."
<ProfXavier> Something like a smile flickered over Charles Xavier's face. He'd failed his students in so many ways over the years, but he did what he could. And in this, he'd given his children a fighting chance.
<Hisako> In her mind - having detached from the situation as her body carried out the coup de grace on everything that came towards her - Hisako thanked Ryu Ogun for her new blade. Samidare's edge sang as it was guided through the air, effortlessly cleaving her enemies in twain.
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth felt the pressure in her head lift, the voice quietened and she didn't feel so shit. Getting up she could see Hisako defending the hole in the wall she needed to create a way to get Jimmy out of here.
<Mayday> "You're not dying," Mayday told the bleeding, limp man in her arms. "Alright? P-Professor? Xavier!" She shook him, looking up and spotting a group of armed soldiers - who had spotted her. She ducked, jumping to one side and into the other music room, "Damnit, Xavier, please don't die..."
<Toxic> Adam had been working on trying to stay airborne without tearing himself apart, but suddenly the abilities switched back on properly, to the tune of being able to blow up five people that time. He grinned, looking demonic behind the mask. "Playtime."
<Jimmy> "Liz? Lizbeth!? You back with me chick? Now ain't a good time to space out!"
<Rott> "No worries, your little pets are all accounted for and hungry for the flesh of innocents, just as you wished," Rott hastily appeased his superior, scrambling to flip switches and lever. "We just may have a teeny tiny problem with our, uhm, psychic back up here." He let out a scream when something exploded, showering the inside of the truck with burning debris.
<Elizabeth> Leg dragging horribly now she picked him up once more ignoring the pain as she always did and carried him over to one of the jeeps.
<Mayday> The redhead sniffled to herself, placing him down next to Rachel's bass guitar, trying not to think of its owner and her fate, "Wait here, Professor. Please don't die, because I can't...we can't do this without you."
<Viper> "I warned you they needed better shielding. You should not have left it behind in Madripoor but you insisted on saving that ridiculous pink hair instead." She rolled her eyes, turning a few dials so that she could give orders to her silver babies.
<Mayday> In a beat, Mayday had left the room, leaping into the gunfire: her senses sharpened again after their unexplained blurring earlier, she dodged bullets in motion, striking back with everything she had.
<Jessica> "Sebastian?!" Jess called again, getting more and more frantic, a blast took out another wall and she curled up with her hands over her ears and then she screamed, Kevin's lifeless body staring back at her.
<Angelina> She was forced to hide from another of the brood, then disarmed a scruffy man with a beaten-up automatic weapon. Angel grabbed it, breaking from cover to fire on the brood.
<Elizabeth> Mind dragging, the door open Jimmy got dropped into the driver's seat while she stumbled to the boot for the first aid kit.
<Hisako> Her armor growing larger, Hisako stopped her relentless cutting, raising her katana horizontally to display the scarlet liquid dripping off of the shear white silver edge. Dead eye seeming to look into the hearts of the rabvle of men around her she spoke the word "Korosu..."
<Jimmy> Jimmy landed ... on something soft .... and angrywithclawsargh! Friday the cat jumped into the passenger seat and hissed at him, then a small voice piped up from the well, "What happened to your legs!?"
<Hisako> A moment later, her armor bought its huge blade across, red gore spattering the green grass, dying the area crimson.
<Jimmy> He looked down and saw that weird green kid from the attic ... wait, this was good! "Nevermind that! You wanna get out of here alive your gonna have to help me drive, okay?" he told the kid, who smiled suddenly, "I get to drive!?"
<Cassie> A gasp signaled Cassandra's return to consciousness, her violet eyes flaring with eerie light as the the revitalising energy rushed through her body, draining away the debilitating weakness she had felt just before. The shadows drew close around her, lifting her back up into the air, ready to guard her and her friends from anyone foolish enough to get in her way.
<Jimmy> "Yeah, yeah sure, I need you to press the pedals, LIZ!? you coming babe!?"
<Sue> Sue looked around at the movement, smiling happily, "Cassie! You're okay!" That was a relief.
<Mayday> Mayday returned to Charles' side in the music room, her hands bloody from the faces she'd punched. She'd kept herself from killing, so there was victory in that. She lifted him again, stepping out into the hall and doubling back, looking for an exit where there were allies to cover them.
<Elizabeth> Leg bandaged as best she could she got back to the drivers seat and realised she hadn't opened the door but ripped it clean off. "Jimmy, I'm going to create a hole in the wall, you and... these guys... are going to drive for it. There's a ton of money in my locker at work get yourself somewhere safe ok?"
<Jimmy> "I'll head for Jack's club, meet us there," he hesitated for a moment then grabbed the front of Liz's shirt and dragged her in for a kiss, "One for luck?"
<Hisako> Turning all the way around to look up at the mansion, Hisako spotted the gathering shadows and let out a soft sigh; Cassandra was alright, that was good. She turned back, more raging men and women armed with makeshift weapons coming towards her. She fell to her knees, shoulders slumping. She couldn't keep fighting.
<Jonas> Jonas had moments of full strength and moments of being a punching bag. Half hte time he was bleeding and trying to crawl away, the other half he was kicking and punching people. It was only after something had changed in the air that he stopped feeling weakened that he was able to kick ass properly. He wrestled giant bugs!
<Angelina> Angel saw them - one of the younger students carrying Xavier's limp body. "Get to the basement levels, bella! There are tunnels!" She worked toward them, spraying the hall with bullets.
<Melati> Healing any wound almost as quickly as she received it, Melati resembled the ferocious predators that she was fighting, her claws tearing through the Brood as they swarmed her. Any human opponent had long learned his lesson to stay clear of rampaging lizard girl.
<Mayday> Mayday blinked at the voice, nodding in the vague direction of the shadowy female, not quite registering who it was, "O-ok! I will!!" she called over, taking a minute to recall how to get to the basement before darting down another hall.
<Elizabeth> Grabbing Jimmy's shirt back he got the snog of his life. "I'll meet you there and you better have a bottle of whiskey waiting for me." Rubbing his head for luck before moving as fast as she could towards the wall a shield going around the Jeep.
<Hisako> Hisako's armor shrank down, appearing as a crouched samurai, arms up and deflecting the blows from the rioting group assaulting her. She looked up at them weakly behind the glowing psionic frame, sighing again.
<Toxic> Adam was tearing apart any who came within his eyeline, and cackling with it. He'd been lucky so far, but there was only so lucky he could stay, being a flying target and easily picked out with the blood around him. He heard the shot hit before he felt it, a sharp, intense agony that blossomed over the side of his face and splattered his blood across the ground beneath him before he automatically caught the bleeding and stopped it.
<Jimmy> "I'll hold you to that, that's a date. Stay safe!" He called back to her as Leech 'ewwwwww'd' in the drivers well, "Peddle to the metal kid! Let's see if we can't run some of these bastards over on the way out!" The Jeep screamed out of the garage, sending a group of brood flying into the air as it sped across the lawn and smashed through the gates, and the two boys and cat were gone.
<Toxic> That didn't save his sight, though, left eye cutting out and leaving him half-blind, the left side of his face a gory mess as he drifted to the ground and curled up in silent agony.
<Danger> "I register more hostile forces incoming," Danger reported, her senors sweeping the area around the mansion as she picked off enemy soldiers with pin-point accuracy, her built in weaponry firing discharging repeatedly. "I strongly advise a tactical retreat." Even now, she put great care to only target non-vital areas.
<Ankka> He got them out of the lower levels, somehow losing Jess in the process and as soon as he was able got up into the air and shielded as his armour began to form over him.
<Mayday> Mayday gasped, falling against a wall on the way to the basement as she caught her breath; she'd forgotten she was wearing an earpiece. She crouched, using her shoulder - since her hands were full of Xavier - to switch hers on, ["Danger! It's Mayday, can you secure the basement level!?"]
<Dai> A line of flame shot across the lawn and into the woods, the trees exploding into flame and charred bugs everywhere as the thirty-foot flying lizard swooped past, the bullets bouncing harmlessly off her armored skin.
<Angelina> The bullets to the face had the intended effect on the brood, but it collided with the already unstable ceiling of the hall and blocked her escape. Swearing in rapid Italian, Angel picked her way to the opening in the wall, her bare feet already cut and bleeding. Her wings felt like fire.
<Elizabeth> Elizabeth forced herself onwards smashing the brood with bits of masonry hands glowing sas she directed the stuff and went on got to close got slashed with a beam of purple in her hand. Slowly but surely she got to Hisako's side, shield around the Jeep dropping as it got to far away.