Summary:Cessily gets some help from Spider-Man to protect a young mutant, and the two try to help make him see his own self-worth. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Cessily was walking back to Xavier's after visiting Brian Freeman in the safe house, bringing him some video games and things, as well as the girl, and her parents. A small care basket, and the like. As usual, when in public, Cessily stuck to clothing that mostly obscured her metallic features. Today it is a pair of jeans, a long jacket, a hood pulled over her features and gloves on her hands. She is moving down the street at a reasonable pace, back to the parking lot when she hears something that makes her nearly instantly upset.
"Quick, get the mutie!"
For a moment, Cessily is -sure- they're talking about her. But, no. Instead, it's a gang of about twelve older boys, probably no older than 18 - and they're chasing a similiarly aged young boy whose green and scaled skin suggests his mutancy has -something- to do with the water where he'd be graceful. But he's on the streets of New York. And his clothes have been torn, tattered. And he's running rather clumsily. The boys chasing him all carry something. A couple, baseball bats. Others pipes that they bang and clatter, creating a ruckus as they chase him. Two have knives, and another has a chain. "Don't let him get away."
Cessily quickly starts running in their direction, her own fears of being discovered forgotten in lieu of one thing: protecting someone.
The scaled kid bolts for the nearest alley, but recent construction has required a 15-foot-tall fence to be set up here, and it is new enough to be solid, without any holes or disconnected ties to peel back the interlocked steel links.
The kid slams against the fence, ten whirls around to see the devil's dozen slow down, seeing that he has nowhere to go.
The leader grins. "End of the line. We get to show you what we do to muties…"
Cessily is close enough to see it. Two guys bringing up the rear are suddenly jerked upward, yanked up into the darkness above the dim lights mounted on the wall without them making a sound…and suddenly the dozen can barely field a baseball team.
She doesn't have time to think about the two guys being jerked into the darkness. Whoever it is doing that isn't her enemy, and is probably helping her. Her training with the X-Men tells her that much. She instead focuses on the immediate danger, then.
"Which 'mutie' are you getting?" Asks Cessily, the disdain and irritation in her voice quite clear. She throws back her hood to show her shockof bright red hair - and the more shocking silver skin, and solid silver eyes. Her arms extend, and they both turn into 'liquid' metal, flowing from her impossibly to wrap around two of the boys and secure their arms to their sides. "I do not want to hurt you," she tells them. "But you are going to leave this boy alone." Determination, in her voice, too. She's faced far worse than this.
The leader, Mick, turned to see ANOTHER mutie. They were coming out of the woodwork! She had Ricky and Mike…wait, where were Jonas and Mitch?
"You guys! RUSH HER!"
The other teenagers don't even blink. Once they are in a fight, they are IN it, and they were going to try and do as much damage as they could.
Rollie dropped his pipe and pulled out his dad's pistol, a reliable 1911 Colt. He had some idea that he was John Wick, and these two were monsters. He aimed the pistol…except it wasn't a pistol anymore. It was a web-designed boxing glove that coated his hand AND the gun. He couldn't pull the trigger, as stupid as that was—the hammer was bound in place. And then someone yanked him against the wall under the fire escape and webbed him to the brick face.
Rollie looked into a wide-eyed masked face and the fight was out of him for the night.
Spider-Man turned and called out, "Where you guys GOING? The party's right here!" As more than a couple looked to him, he webbed two of them together with a blaast of webbing that pushed them against the wall and glued them to it.
Okay, so it wasn't Anya. She'd thought it -was-, at the sign of the webbing'd boxing glove, for a brief moment. That doesn't mean she's any less happy. She pushes the two she has corralled together, so they literally knock heads, and even as someone sinks one of those knives into her side, she just turns and looks at him.
She says, calmly, "That won't work. Sorry." Her right arm turns, then, into a long and wicked looking sword. Off-handedly, she tells him, "And, mine's bigger."
Her other hand forms into a blunt metallic ball, and she swings her arm upward to slam into his chest and knock the wind out of him to take him out of the fight. The dirty dozen are quickly becoming a very paltry few. Mostly thanks to Spider-Man. "You should be ashamed of yourselves."
Mick sees his good time out with the guys turning into a rout. They were half-down already, and Spider-Man was the guy with the price on his head and he was STILL out on the street.
He turned to the lizard-boy and raised his baseball bat. "At least I'll get YOU…" he says, moving towards Lizard-Boy…
And then his body pitches forward as his feet snag something and inertia keeps the rest of his body going. His arms flail as he hits the street on his belly. THEN the webs cover his entire body up to his neck. Another webline snags the baseball bat and it is casually yanked into Spidey's hand. He turns to the others, thwacking the bat into his other hand with a telltale smack and yells, "From here on out, it's BROKEN BONES for anyone stupid enough to stick around!"
A baseball bat slams against Cessily's back, but that doesn't do anything either. Instead, she turns, and levels a kick, directly between the boys legs. Then, she twists and uses a simple martial-arts toss to pitch him into the other trying to run away.
"The rest of you had better get out of here. Because I'm about to call the police. And if you're still around when they get here - well. I'm happy to report that hate crime is a very serious crime. So you might want to move. And rethink the next time you decide to have some fun."
She pulls out her phone. And she starts snapping pictures of the boys. "And if you don't? If I -ever- see you doing this again? Or hear about it? I'm posting these pictures on social media. So. All. Of. Your. Friends. And. Your families. Will. Know."
Being arrested is not a serious worry for some of them. But there are two who are still ambulatory who are 18 and can be tried as adults, so they run.
The others realizes that if the cops don't come for them, their parents will. So THEY run.
"Soon, the only ones left who aren't webbed to something are Spider-Man, Cessily, and the kid, who is huddled against the fence.
Spidey walks over to him, one gloved hand held out. "Hey…you're okay."
The kid looked at him, then hugged him fiercely. Spider-Man looked down at him, then patted his shoulders. "Hey, man…it's okay. You're safe." He pointed to Cessily. "She saved you."
Cessily smiles, returning her hands to - well, hand-shapes. She confides, "I don't think they're going to bother you again, for awhile. I'm sorry that happened. Most people aren't assholes, like that. But enough are that, well, it can be hard. Trust me, I know." Of course she knows. She's literally liquid mercury. "It's okay to be mad about it. But, there are a lot of good ways you can express that. Don't let them bait you. Okay? Go home. Be with people who love you." She touches the boys shoulder, "But if it does happen again? Well. Just lead them to water, yeah?" She winks.
Then she looks up at Spider-Man. She exhales, and smiles at his praise. "I had a little help," she conceeds very willingly. "I thought you were A—Spider-Girl for a minute. Thank you."
Spidey looks down at himself. "Ah, I was in the neighborhood."
The kid backs up, then looks around. "What if they come back…?" he asks uncertainly.
Spider-Man looks at him, then at Cessily. "Well, I suppose we could walk the guy home, couldn't we, miss?"
"We could," agrees Cessily, warmly. Besides, she'd not met Spider-Man before. And the boy could use a friend, and some support. She tells the boy, "I'm Cessily, by the way. And he's Spider-Man. Pretty cool guy, despite what the papers say. Lead the way. We'll make sure you get hom safe."
She goes to pick up her gloves, telling the boy, "I'm not afraid of who I am. I'm not afraid to go out. But, I know what it's like to not want to be stared at all the time. Hoodies are really good for that. Don't work so well in the summer, though," she admits. "Hats can help, then. And long sleeves shirts. Light fabrics."
She sidelongs a glance to Spider-Man, "Must be a pretty great neighborhood then, with you around to keep an eye on it. Glad there's people like you."
Spider-Man chuckles. "I'm just a guy who just…jumps in. Because i can't do nothing." He looks to the kid, who has extricated himself from the hug and is walking towards the street. "What's your name, son?"
"They call me Gecko," he says, his improving humor stalling slightly.
"Not what they call you. What's your name?"
The kid pauses, allowing them to catch up. "Roger."
"Roger, Roger," Spidey says with a grin. "Lead on." He looks back to Cessily. "Nice ta meet ya. That was impressive, what you did."
"Oh, it wasn't much. I didn't really want to hurt them. I don't like fighting. I know how to fight, though," she says, quietly, a bit self-conscious about Spider-Man's praise to her efforts. "But I know when it's needed."
Her head looks to Roger as they move through the streets, and head into the residential section. "Roger, Roger? Really?" Cessily giggle,s just a little. "Wow. Lame." Then, she looks back to the kid. "Promise me something, though, okay? That you won't let those jerks keep you down. It's smart to run away from a fight you know you can't win. Just don't let them keep you down. Because, to me? You're a pretty cool kid. And I bet you have some really amazing skills. And, I'm not talking about what you can -do-. I'm talking like, skills. Here." She taps her head with a slight metallic ping of metal-on-metal.
Roger looks back and smiles. "Don't worry. I can swim REAL fast!"
Spider-Man chuckles. "I learned a little sparring, but at best, my fighting style can be classified as less Tae Kwan Do and more Anything Works, Do. The two big things I have are a lot of quick and my Spidey-Sense. And as a great salvage expert once said, quick is what counts."
"Bet you could probably get a job doing something really cool, like deep sea diving, or marine life research, ocean mapping, or even something cool like joining the Coast Guard. Keeping people safe, saving lives," Cessily provides as means of focus for the boy.
"Maybe you should take some classes, then. That's what I did." Except her classes were with the X-Men, and in the Danger Room. Still, that's not something that she mentions at all, outside of Xavier's, or those who have ties to it.
Roger looks thoughtful. "I bet YOU could teach me something, Spider-Man!"
Spidey stops. "…Me? What about your parents?"
Roger shrugged. "Mom left. Blamed Dad for…this. Dad works, but he doesn't know what to do. He doesn't think I know, but I know. You could teach me how to be a hero, Spidey!"
Spider-Man walked over to him. "You want me to teach you how to be a superhero?"
"A GOOD superhero." Roger grinned, revealing rows of sharp teeth.
*Don't commit. Who are you to teach ANYONE?* His brain seemed to be more nervous than he was.
"…are you going to do what I tell you to?"
Roger grins and nods, elated.
"Then you have to tell your dad about this. That you are going to do your chores and your homework, before I teach you anything. To be a good SUPERHERO…you have to be a good PERSON, first."
"He's right," Cessily agrees with Spider-Man. "You already showed you could use your brain, Roger. But, if you aren't a good person, and have a committment? Then, you're just doing it because it's easy. And, being a superhero, a GOOD superhero, isn't easy. It's actually one of the hardest things to do."
Roger looked doubtful. "And if I do this…you'll teach me. You PROMISE."
Spidey reached into his backpack and pulled out a small red disc with eight stubby legs. "Keep this. I'll contact you with it. You can beep me with it by squeezing it twice."
Roger takes the tracer and nods. "Okay. I'll tell my dad. And if he says it's all right…"
"I'll teach you. You have my word."
Rogers grins and sticks the tracer in his pocket.
Spidey smiles to Cessily. "I'm a pushover, aren't I?"
"It looks like," agrees she, with a smile, and a helpless shrug, clearly humored.
%xessily looks back to Roger, "Your dad sounds like a really good person. Be proud of him. And, make him just as proud of you, as you are of him. You're lucky to have each other."
Then, as they come upon Roger's house, Cessily waits at the sidewalk for Roger to get into the home, looking over to Spider-Man. "I think you really just made his day. You're already one of the best people I've ever met." And she means it.
Spidey sighs as he watches Roger go into his house. "He needs someone, Cessily. And if I can do something, then I'm going to do it. Maybe I can teach him that he's as valid as any other person. That's what he REALLY needs to know."