Summary:A random convergence of Rose, Priscilla, Piotr & Isis encounter a mad mutant during first manifestation. Oh, and an exploding cockroach. Good times! Log Info:Storyteller: hank-mccoy |
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It is a warm, actually a sultry night verging on the sticky. The sun has just dipped below the horizon, the sky painted in a myriad of reds and blues and oranges with the barest glow competing with the lights of the city. Unable to decide on night or day, the background noises of people bustling about on their various and sundry tasks in the vicinity of both the Disaster Zone and Mutant Town fill the void with a voice all it's own.
And then a scream rends through that noise, a voice twisted by rage, and limitless fear, a voice bereft of hope.
Wild-eyed, a man staggers out of a tenement. His garb clearly that of a street person, redolent with old sweat, older beer, and a pungent reek of garbage. "AHhhhhhhH!" He staggers into the middle of the road, and nearly gets hit by a bicycle messenger who was ALREADY sweating bullets.
Piotr needed to get out of the mansion for a bit. He was being a downer towards everyone, and just moping in his room wasn't going to be much of a help. Finally, he dragged himself out, as a good Russian would do. Having gone to Mutant Town to meet a friend, he's currently walking with Isis, carrying a bag filled with supplies. "Perhaps I will working on a painting of you next." he offers to the young woman with a hint of amusement.
"Though that will mean having to catch you in the midsts of a nap to make sure you will stay still long enough to be a proper subject." he offers in a gentle teasing tone. He's still feeling in poor spirits, but he's slowly starting to come around as he hears the scream, and the man comes out. "Behind me." he tells Isis as he takes on the larger and more metallic form of Colossus.
Ravager was just coming out of Mutant Town, having touched base with one of her more 'seedy' contacts she'd worked with previously about a job. Whether she took the job or not does not matter to this particulary story - what does matter is that her motorcycle had been parked in a very out-of-the-way place to ensure that nobody would likely mess with it. It also gave her a chance to patrol on foot, as well as get a better idea for the entire area in general.
She recognizes Piotr, but he may or may not recognize her - afterall, her hair is the same - she is missing an eye and that is 'closed off' on her costume. But she's in her red's and oranges, and literally armed to the teeth. Very few people would likely wish to tussle with such a well-armed costumed sort, and she could, perhaps, easily be mistaken for some kind of villian or assassin - and that wouldn't be too far from the truth.
The scream catches her attention and she closes the distance, considering the situation, analyzing the data with her hyper-analytical mind, parsing the data.
She does not yet draw a weapon, though she's poised to draw from any number of them on her person - the twin energy blades, the twin katanas, the twin pistols, or the arabic knife in a sheath.
The streets of New York City are rarely empty, and tonight, even here, is no exception. Nestled amongst the other cars and trucks heading this way and that, a respledent Ducati makes its way along, gleaming black with purple highlights, which echo that of the brilliantly purple helmet with gold-accented jade green coiled dragons on each side born by the rider, hung low with a leather jacket tied about her waist, exposing the very brief white t-shirt on her torso and a good bit of caramel-colored skin. A hint of ebon black hair peeks out from the helmet as the rider continues along, head turning this way and that.
Yet before even the voice screams, the driver pauses, lifting up, head turned towards where, a second later, the scream sounds. And then the bike jumps the curb and the kickstand comes down, the key fobb pulled from the bike as the woman strides quickly - but does not quite run - in the direction of that cry … and then the man coming 'round the corner.
Isis wanders beside Piotr, casting looks in his direction every so often. "She wasn't good enough for you …" she murmurs as the cats ears that sit atop her head turning every now and then. It might look like she's not paying attention, but she is. Aware of the sounds and smells that waft around you. "You don't want a painting of me …" Her voice is nearly a purr. "And if you want me still, I just sunshine or food…"
If she had a tail it would be swishing, but she doesn't. It's just about everything else in her mannerisms is feline.
The scream actually makes her wince - it hurts her hearing - then she lets out a low feline growl.
With Piotr metalling up, for once the feline-like mutant does as she's told and steps behind him "He smells." she says as she peeks from behind his form. "And there's someone else …" she nods to Rose.
"WatchingAllAround…watchingallaround…ALLAROUND-ALLLLllLlLlAROUND!" The man actually tears at his own flesh, gouging at his cheeks as he frantically writhes and contorts in an utterly impossible attempt to see everywhere at once. The stink of him only grows stronger, and his contortions grow more frenzied.
People definitely do not want ANY part of costumed figures converging about a madman! The bike messenger manages to avoid the guy, but when he sees the others coming out of the brickwork, he tucks his head down, kicks off of bus stop's wall, and flees at good speed.
Gosh Darn it, that package tube WILL get to the recpipient!
In the mean time the mad fellow goes very still all of a sudden, hunkering down like an animal, his spine twisting in ways a spine simply could not. With a lunge he leaps past the Ducati and pounces on…a dead rat. The rat is lifted up, and he twists…but that's not what spatters his face, it is the /bug/, a damn ROACH…violently pushing through the carcass that sprays rat bits into his eyes.
With Isis behind him, when the street person starts to transform, Piotr's eyes go wide. "Boishe Moi!" he exclaims in surprise, though the appearance of the other two women is noted. The one in orange and black especially. Isis may feel that brief surge of confusion - naw, couldn't be the same woman he met at Coney Island.
His attention snaps back to the here and now, as he finds himself looking at the gruesome sight of the rat/roach. Part of him feels his stomach lurch in his stomach. Thankfully his lunch was light, so he doesn't quite hurl - but he's feeling quite green.
"Well, that's something you don't see everyday," Ravager mutters, just loud enough for those close enough to hear. She grunts as Pris comes into view, smirking at the caramel-skinned girl, lifting her chin as if to say 'What's up?'
"Hey, Freakshow," she calls, adressing the quite-mad mutant. "You have a total of five seconds to take a chill pill before you lose your kneecaps."
Hey!" comes a muffled shout from the purple-helmeted woman as she spins around right beside the flight of the madman who just leapt over her bike. She had intended to help him, or at least calm him. And then … what the …? His frenzied state is bewildering, hard to keep a bead in, and Pris struggles with it, striving to push it aside lest her own psyche be swamped. For the moment, she advances towards him, watching carefully, hands up and ready to act but unarmed. But she does nods towards Ravager.
Isis might be behind Piotr for the moment but he knows that's not going to last long. The feline-like mutant is curious if nothing else. "You know her?" Yes, she's picked up the emotion and knowing Piotr as she does, attributes more nuance to what she 'reads' than she might with others.
"Is he a mutant?" Isis steps from behind Piotr, peering at the carnage, her blue/grey cat-slitted eyes settling on Priscilla for a moment before her attention is given fully to the guy with rat/roach in his hand. "I don't think you should try eating that… " The gruesome nature of what she's seeing doesn't seem to impact like it does to others.
Slowly though, claws start to appear from her fingernails. Just like a cats.
"ALL-AROUND! Eyes ALL around! WatchingWATCHINGwatching—-the cold eyes! The dead eyes!" The man dubbed Freakshow by the Ravager (his people will contact yours for the rights!) shriekds then and tears bunches of his hair out as the spray of viscera and corruption spatters him. And then his body bulges, twisting in impossible ways, growing muscles that curve, and then RE-curve. His bones crack as he reforms, finger bones pushing through his finger tips to form fixed fighting claws as his mouth opens impossibly wide, teeth elongating as he grows multiple rows of massive fangs in tiers like a shark.
Freakshow indeed!
The roach? It scurries for cover, which is very roach-y behavior! Of course…the screams and such, those mask most of the noises it makes, but one with keen enough senses might well hear…wait…a watch? Gears? Something! Tiny clicks and whirs.
The Freakshow turns to the belligerent Ravager then, though…huge metal man…TWO targets, one fractured mind…
When Piotr first found Isis, he had a choice - to try to calm her down. Or smack her until she stopped. He chose the former. There was a reason for that. She seemed reasonable - if a little off at the time. This guy? This guy doesn't seem to be trying to stabalize at all. "That is enough!" says the large metallic Russian. And in order to protect the others, Colossus tromps forward, not daring Isis to try to feel into her mind.
Though at the question about Ravager, he shakes his head. "Reminds me of someone I met." he says, but he's not going any further at that. His thoughts on a personal level are a bit fragile at the moment, and there's a bigger issue as he approaches the mass of twisted and mutated humanity. "What are you?" he asks - mainly himself, more than the creature. He's just going to try to keep the creature from getting to the others.
The roach is entirely missed in the moment by Piotr.
"You're my witness. I tried to do this the nice way," Ravager informs Pris, her monocular eye narrowed at the man. She sees the roach - she had learned, afterall, long ago to not miss a single piece of data when you're fighting someone. Her father was very … adamant about that, and in how he taught her very … proficient.
With one hand she pulls out a pistol, the other draws a katana from her back. The pistol is fired at the enraged monstrosity's "kneecaps", or whatever they could be called now with that transformation going on. It fires again. And, again. She's already surmised there's a meaty mass of muscle there, and it's likely one bullet isn't going to do the job.
The motorcyclist with the purple helmet lifts a fingerlessly gloved hand, as if to cal off the attack that comes … but it's too late, even though she actually acts before Ravager moves, or speaks. Yet even as the woman is blasting away at this man, the motorcyclist steps into the line of fire - heedless of the blasting shells exploding through her leg - and grabs hold of that toothsome maw on both sides, as her Will - the mighty will of Voodoo - slams into what remains of a mind inside this creature, and tries to compel the figure to stop, to hold still, to do nothing. With her leg nearly blown off, her fingers tighten on the bone-ridged skull to keep herself up and in contact …
Piotr might have missed the roach, but Isis did not. Something that scurries is almost a tease to the young mutant. Her nose wrinkles as the man changes, the blood and gore factor rising as he does. "Reminds me of …" she shakes her head, though all present will feel the wave of unsettled emotion as she unintentionally broadcasts.
While the others focus on the bigger threat, Isis leaps past them all - maybe the meat and bone threat will ignore her, he's got enough to deal with after all - and tries to 'pounce' on the roach, a feral glint starting to enter her eyes.
Nope! Freakshow is definitely not trying to calm down - his mind has been reduced to a gibbering mass of paranoia and pain, and even the non-empaths in the area can sense how broken his mind is. For the Empath is far worse - his mutant gift must have been one of awareness of some sort, he could feel when others looked at him, but it got to be too much and he finally snapped…his mutant genes flipping out just as badly as he did.
More so.
The big steel guy approaching draws his gaze, and if you thought his body smelled bad it has ZILCH on the mutant mountain of madness's -breath-.
As bullets tear through him, after passing through the biker-lady's leg first, he shrieks even more incoherently. And then hands grip his deforming skill, his fangs dripping with his own blood, even as tortured flesh seeps and heals dozens of wounds. Pure though wielded like a surgeon's scalpel slices through the madness, finding at the core of the rage and pain the form of a young man, not the older one everyone saw…curled up and pushing away the dreams, the pain, the eyes in utter hopelessness and despair.
Swift as a cat, while the other deal with the big threat, Isis manages to pounce on the skitering roach, and it is ALL wrong! Hard. Metal. Oil-gas-metal smeell. Cold, but tingling…
There's a heavy wince from Piotr, as he is the one closest to the creature - though he cannot let it attack Priscilla. Or anyone else. Even with Rose firing, the large metallic mutant has a decision to make. And make it does. His hands reach out to grab the creature to lift it off the ground. "You will not go further." he growls beneath his breath. With Priscilla grabbing a hold of the creature's head, both of the metallic eyes go wide. "You should not!" he warns, worried for the young woman as she grabs a hold of the creature's head, as he wrestles with keeping the rest of the body from moving forward.
"Get the fuck outta the way," snaps Ravager, harshly. Oh, she knows what Pris did was absolutely on purpose. And, it seems to only infuriate the well-armed woman. She curses, lewdly, loudly, and then the single pistol is sheathed, only to allow her time to draw out the Gossamer knife in her right hand.
She runs directly into the fight, as insane as that may be. She utilizes the katana in her left hand like one would a shield, ready to parry any attack this loathsome twisted entity might unleash while her knife is brandished to sink deep into the creature's flesh.
Rose is fast. Faster than any normal human has a right to be, but not blindingly so. Still, Carl Lewis would be jealous.
With Pris holding onto Freakshow's face, she lunges in with the blade that not only can rend still like butter, but also causes maddening pain upon cutting flesh, seeking to bury the blade into one of those insanely muscled legs that keeps the thing upright and provides it mobility should Pris let go - and then Piotr also 'intervenes', as he lifts the creature up. She exhales through her nose, sharply.
"Yeah. You two let me know when you're done giving Face-Eater there cuddles, so we can fight him. That ain't gonna do SHIT."
Pris is yoinked off her feet by Piotr lifting the man-creature into the air to restrain it from attacking; she forms up her will, wrapping it around the frightened young man deep within that tortured psyche, trying to rescue him, to grant him the strength t —- ARGH!
Then Rose stabs the creature with that blade of pain, and Priscilla's mind just about literally explodes with white flaming agony. Yet she cannot let go; all of her muscles have locked up in place, back arching, legs akimbo, lungs frozen in a silent scream …
Isis is not strong, she's quick and she's agile. It takes her a bit to catch the thing, looking more like a cat as she pounces a couple times. Eventually though, her cats claws close around the creature and she hisses in distaste. This is not what she was expecting. At least she doesn't try to bite it, just lets the thing hang loosely from her claws as she turns it over.
Which is when the true force of Freakshows lunacy hits her.
Isis has struggled since the X-Men found her. Trying to control her feral nature, the one that AIM had pushed and prodded at, kept her in a near feral state. Freakshows mental state doesn't do anything for hers. With a low feline growl, Isis throws the creature to the ground, bringing her booted foot down on it, hard.
Die.
What her own empathic broadcast is doing for the others, is anyones guess.
In all fairness…the pulse of pain from the Ravager's attack is like getting hit by a lightning bolt for those nearest to Freakshow…for those with mental powers, much much worse. Poor Piotr gets a heaping helping of the agony-spike, and it leaves him staggered and forces him back to his non-metal form. As bad as it is for him, far worse hits the mindstorm toseed psyche of Voodoo — who was only trying to heal that beleaguered mind. The spike of feral rage from Isis only exacerbates things, especially Freakshow.
In a way, it is a kindness. The last stroke as it were - conflagration atop inferno atop disaster. The mutant sent into wild mutation due to stress, falls. His mind snuffed out like a candle's flame in a hurricane. Is it alive? Hard to say at this point. The body slithers, and writhes…muscles sloughing off, to melt into…something. Ichor? That's an apt word, teeth are shed along with the bulk, but…it is left not even close to human looking.
If it even lives.
Even fueled by adrenaline, Isis's stomping on the bug doesn't do much more than annoy it! Unable to escape her speed, however, it is left no option but to attack! The boot heel strikes, adn then the creature rears back and then leaps for the cat-girl. The thing JUMPS straight up over four feet to land on her — and then it /detonates/, the explosion loud, like fireworks, but also arcing with electricity!
A roach.
Exploded.
Ravager steps back, rocked by the wave of mental anguish duplicated, falling to her knee in the backlash of her own attack, the knife barely gripped in her hand. She sucks in a breath through her clenched teeth, knuckles whitening but refusing to scream at the pain. She's not unfamliar to pain - she had, afterall, gouged out her own eye. Voluntarily.
She watches at the -thing- sloughs off ichor, and returns to being human, mostly, again. She turns a hard eye on Pris, "What do you —," but she's cut off, as there's an explosion of electricity and combustion combined, shielding her eye, and shouting, "The hell?!"
Her eye sweeps to the area, searching for the cause, and spying Isis. She gets up to her feet, slowly, one hand moving to her head, briefly, and then she begins to move, slowly over to Isis, to see if she's still alive.
Stomp Stomp Stomp
Isis is quick but the roach is quicker. There's a disgruntled 'yowl' as the roach leaps for her. And a feline scream as the thing explodes sending a shower of metal splinters into her, along with a nice little burst of energy - just a small jolt.
Like a taser.
It's the wave of pained empathy that flows that probably affects the others. Isis staggers and drops, body spasming as the jolt runs through her.
By the time Rose gets to her, she's whimpering and only just human enough not lash out and bite. She's wearing a bracelet - like a medialert thing - that's probably important, right about now.
Freakshow rasps in a few painful breaths, a froth bubbling across mangled and lacerated lips. His bones have twisted up inside, his ribs piercing his lungs, but the body's first-awakening power trying to heal what really can't be. Towards the end the fallen…thing…has a terrible lucidity to eyes of all too normal brown. "The eyes…watching…alway—-" And then he falls silent, a long breath exhaled as his life ends.
Isis is not in great shape, the bug-bomb hit with a fair amount of kinetic energy and shrapnel, there's actually tiny gears, like from a watch…and electrical burns consistent with those of a civilian model taser, the injuries are not pleasant but easily treatable by someone with any first aid skill and the willingness to do so. Voodoo's condition…that's harder to assess, she was hit ground zero by all sorts of mental ick. Ravager might just have to call for assistance! Piotr is still pretty well out of it too.
Rose looks over at Pris, knowing from her encounter the other night Pris will want to get out of Dodge before any medical help can some. She grunts, "Next time, don't get in the way of my bullets. Jesus."
She is clearly the only one still standing. She looks to Isis, looks to Piotr, looks to Pris. Mutters, "Shit."
Then, she's picking up her cellphone, even as she tells Isis, "Hold on. Relax. Here to help." She does not have a 'soothing' voice, but it's pretty matter of fact, terse, but there's no deciet. She moves down to look at the bracelet, grunts again.
The first call is placed to Paragon Investigations. Ravager is not very long on the phone, "One of your girls is down. Explosion hit her, at the intersection where Mutant Town meets Disaster Zone. She's pretty fucked up. Better come get her." Click.
Another pause, and she moves over to Pris, even as she's calling 911. "Got 2 metas down. The mostly naked one needs psychiatric confinement and care. The big ass metal Russian one might be okay, but he's unconcious. Don't know. Outside the Disaster Zone, in front of Mutant Town. No pedestrians harmed, or whatever. Young Avengers out." Click.
She gets to Pris, picks the woman up and mutters, "I'm going to kick your ass for interfering with my fight." Then, she carries Pris over to her motorcycle, mounting her onto the bike, mounting it herself and securing Pris' arms around her.
Then, Rose is driving off to let the medical teams, and authorities, take care of the mess.
The fallen form of Voodoo is, all things considered, incredibly peaceful. Unmoving. Broken in places, shattered even, splattered with blood and running with ichor. But really, does any of that still matter? Hoisted up, the body does not protest, nor does it move. Filthy and dripping, it is little more than a raggamuffin, a seemingly boneless figure like the scarecrows of straw. What a mess.