Summary:Walls fall and Purifiers make a showing Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
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East Village is that place that borders M-Town. A study in contrasts - rich in history but at one point, fairly recently, thought of as a ghetto, the inhabitants are doing what they can to raise the profile of the area.
They have been successful, more or less.
Today sees the opening of a new clinic in the area. Designed to augment the existing medical care in the area, including the Tolivar Centre, this clinic has been focussing on letting mutants know they are welcome.
It's a tall ask, really - whilst sentiment against mutants isn't as bad as it was - there are some that old habits die hard for. For the mutants themselves, most remember registration and what it had meant to them personally.
The speeches are all done leaving just the 'ribbon cutting' to be done. They've been the usual thing, thanking the community and the sponsors for making this possible. Among those gathered on a temporary dias are Alderman Michael Valerius and Doctor Gretchen Navarre the clinic administrator.
It's a well attended event. Man residents have come out today. Some, of course, don't look too impressed. Others the opposite. There's even a representation from MTown - though most of those are keeping the shadows and out of the way.
Having recently 'come out' as a mutant, though it was hardly a big event, Dazzler is here to put on a post-opening show. It's not really her audience, and most probably don't even know who she is, but a gig is a gig. Clad in her white jumpsuit and wearing her still developing blue face make-up, she listens politely to the speeches. With Hank's music machine as her band, she sits on the edge of what is little more than a temporary bench rather than a stage, awaiting her time to shine.
Really, Brandon doesn't have much to do with mutants. They're not something he ever gave much thought to even after he discovered he was one. He was too busy to think beyond his duty. Having gotten out, he's not busy at all which has given him time to think. This isn't necessarily a good thing. But it's come to his attention that mutants have been disappearing and it's prompted him to see what they're like. Mutants that is. And so he's in Mutant Town for the opening, observing the goings on and those in attendance.
Carol isn't a mutant, far from it really. But, she's pretty pro-mutant rights, and counts a lot of mutants as her friends. So, the Avengers wanted to have a representative present, Carol easily volunteered for the task. Currently, she's in costume, giving off a faint sparkly aura as she smiles at passerby, looking pretty happy to be here and give a hand. Though she doesn't seem to be expecting any possible trouble…
Hank does indeed have a lot to do with mutants, he's been an outspoken political activist during the registration act, he even spent a few days imprisoned for those activities. Blogs. Sites. Letter campains…the works. Fewer would be aware of his status as one of the X-men. So yes, he's very much in favor of new clinics that will welcome and treat his brethren.
Eyes of yellow are bright as he listens to the speeches, and he's actually met a few of the people present, Brandon in the DZ, and Alison is a friend. And that draws him over towards the Dazzler. "Hello Ali." He greets quietly.
Hank is dressed in pretty casual attire, just a maroon sweater and black khaki's. Alison might be surprised to see that not only is he furry again, he's much more…wild looking, and his eyes are bright yellow, though not actually luminous. "Alison Blair, I'd like you to meet my friend Hisako Ichiki. Hisako, Alison is also a friend."
Alderman Valerius smiles over the audience and hands the scissors to Doctor Navarre. "And now … we declare this clinic open." There's a 'snip' as the ribbon is cut and polite applause all around.
"Now … we have … Dazzler! to thrill you all with her sound!" Yes, it's Alison's turn to shine as the dais is cleared for her to perform.
Brandon and Carol have ended up near each other, which is close enough to see and hear Hank speak to Ali. Which is how they both see the slim feline like mutant tug on Hanks sleeve. "Something … is wrong." Isis Marik says. "Hello Hisako." she adds distractedly with the barest of nods to the performer.
Seeing Brandon, she gestures to him to come closer. "Someone is … " Her words are cut short as the group of mutants that have been lurking at the edges scatter towards the centre. The wall behind them collapsing.
The silhouette of six people can be seen in the shadows. It's like they're herding that group of mutants forward.
It's not the podium nor the entertain that Brandon's watching so when Isis beckons, Brandon goes over, nodding to those she's with. "Someone is what?" he asks before he turns at the sound of the collapsing wall. "Hurt?" Making a wall collapse? "Who are they?" he asks, motioning toward the ones in the shadows.
While Hisako hasn't been in the U.S.A. long enough to get caught up in the political side of the registration debate/debacle, she's been just as concerned about mutants as Hank since she's had the opportunity. And she's dressed up semi-formally - cream-colored blouse, navy blue sweater, and a black knee-length skirt: presentable enough at a formal occasion, but not really overdressing. This is an occasion worth celebrating, in her opinion.
"I think we might have met in passing?" Hisako says to Alison, looking her over as if refreshing her memory. She does extend a hand to shake, though, as Hank introduces her. "But it's definitely good to meet you - and an honor, I should add," Hisako says with a wry grin.
Hisako has a moment to wave to Isis before things go to hell, the wall collapsing with minimal warning. "What the - ?!" exclaims the young Japanese woman, yellow-tinted psychokinetic energy blossoming around her as much out of reflex as by volition - Hisako's exo-armor manifesting as she realizes what Isis already seemed to suspect: trouble.
And with her powers, Hisako has no hesitation about advancing towards those six silhouettes. "Who are you," Hisako calls out, "and why are you out to make trouble *here*?!" If these individuals are anti-mutant sympathizers or extremists, Hisako's just made herself a target, and she knows it.
She also knows she's in less danger than most mutants would be, depending on what weapons are going to be in play.
"Animal!" Alison leaps up to give Hank a tight hug. She doesn't call him Animal because he's a Beast, it's because she still wants him to dress in a vest and be her drummer. "You're looking…furry again" she grins, stroking said fur. "So soft. Hello, Hisako. We've met? Sorry if I don't remember but life is so crazy. Hey, Isis." And it's about to get crazier.
"Looks like I'm up" Alison grins before her gig is cut short. She frowns at the interruption even while getting into a defensive stat. In this neighborhood, you have to expect the worst.
Alison's hug is returned and a warm rumble of laughter. "Congratulations on this gig, and coming out." He says approvingly. "Isis?" Hank blinks at the tug from yet ANOTHER friend present, and his nostrils flare as he scents the air seeking danger. "What do you sense?" His hackles raise at the warming from the empath.
Nope, not a dram of hesitation - if Isis says there's trouble, there's trouble.
And them the wall comes tumblin' down, and there's a half dozen mysterious figures, and he instinctively places himself between Alison, Isis and harm if he can. Of all things, he dons his reading glasses, and then issues a low voice command - Isis would hear what sounds like a ridiculously long stream of gibberish, but then the glasses morph into a visor, and his clothing morphs into his costume, and he snarls, a low challenging rumble to get the attention of the bad guys and focus it on himself rather than others.
Carol hears the warning from the others, and immediately takes to the sky, light flaring around her as Captain Marvel is most decidedly here. She sees the silhouettes, her aura glowing as she looks at them, "Not sure who you people are, but you picked the wrong party to crash." She hangs back though, ready to play defense for the crowd if necessary.
"… trouble…" Isis answers Hanks as the six figures step out of the shadows. They're well armed - for civilians that is - shotguns and rifles and some form of tac gear. Dylan might laugh - as an ex soldier, these guys are nothing more than a gang.
Not that it stops them. They fire into the air and herd the mutants forward. "Mutant scum!" One of the men calls out. "Fouling up our neighbourhood. The Church will cleanse you away."
The Church. Those who remember Registration, will remember the Purifiers and their Churches. They had been dealt a cruel blow after the blitz and left broken. Some had survived, clearly. Though … are they really a problem?
Hanks growling certainly gets their attention. As does Hisako. "More fucking mutants. Get 'em, the bad singer and the cat …"
"What cat?"
"The girl that was the—-" Isis has leapt to the top of a nearby wall and isn't where she was just standing.
"Fuck it." The lead guy opens fire at the ground by Hanks feet, whilst the one that Hisako is approaching tries to club her with a billy club.
Alison finds herself the target of one of the others. Bullets peppering the ground near hers, Brandons and Carols feet.
Alison glances around for the bad singer but when bullets start hitting the ground nearby, there is an horrific realisation. "Wait. You mean me!" Those are fighting words. "Let's make some noise!" She flicks on the music machine and the music booms out. Sure, there is probably screaming and definitely gunfire to fuel her, but you can never have enough. A moment of concentration and a shield of photonic energy forms around her in case they actually try to hit her. "They only have guns, right?" she asks Hank. "Are they seriously trying to take us on with guns? Captain Marvel is right there…" Alison can't see her where she was but then looks up. "There."
The Church? Not any church Brandon knows of. But then again, he doesn't really care. "Bigot wannabes really piss me off." he says to no one in particular. Maybe to the Purifiers. It could be considered a warning because a moment later he transforms into a swirling mass of energy which then coalesces into a new form. It's nothing humanoid this time; they might not be be phased by that. Instead, the translucent energy reforms into a quadraped. Standing about eight foot tall at the shoulder, it bears a resemblance to some sort of mechanical feline. A tiger perhaps. Larger than a Clydesdale. It roars soundlessly, revealing very, very sharp teeth as well as a barrel mounted in its mouth. A barrel which flashes and fires a series of bolts of telekinetic energy at /their/ feet much like a gatling gun. Dance.
The Church.
Purifiers.
A flicker of anger comes to Hisako's face, echoed by a frisson of red in the psi-projected armor's yellow before it settles to orange. Of all the things these thugs could have said that would fail to engender sympathy in her heart for them, they just *had* to allude to such a sore point for her personally. And the billy club completely and utterly fails to faze her; she just stands there in her armor and takes the hit.
If the thug swings hard enough, he'll probably break his own weapon against the psychokinetic construct. "I would say 'pick on somebody your own size,'" Hisako says coolly, "but there is *nothing* so tiny as you are, bigoted fool. You may not believe in a God who created mutants, but that is your error. Leave this place and *do not return*, save to ask forgiveness for your sins against these people."
Her armor's about seven feet tall now - and she takes one step forward, glaring from inside her armor, refusing to give any ground up at all.
"Purifiers? Really?" His words entirely losing the polished and urbane tones he normally uses, nope, Beast is sounding more like his namesake than ever. But something seems off here, they are shooting at the ground, not at /him/, and there were other mutants herded forward. He starts to look about him, eyes narrowed to dangerous slits, not terribly worried by the bullets. He'll still try to meatshield for Alison, lightshield there or not, he protects his friends.
Armor is of course far more resilient than he is.
Brandon's transformation—yeah, that's also pretty cool. "My god, he's able to be Voltron."
No time for further geekery, alas. Still paying heed to his environs, arches his back and roars, more sound for the Dazzler's mill…and then prepares to attack, but does not yet do so.
"Something is off…" He murmurs.
Carol frowns, "Alright, this doesn't make a lot of sense…" She still hangs back, though she does fire a blinding flash of light at the Purifiers, looking to make them easier for everyone else to mop up. What's she doing? Well, right now, she's keeping alert for something else. Something more. Because this doesn't feel right.
They only have guns and nothing military at that. They also have that fanatical gleam in their eyes. And there's only six of them.
Carols blast of light shatters the pavement at two of their feet and they look up - belatedly to where Alison just pointed. "Mutey lovers … the whole damn lot of you …" Yeah, they fire at Carol as well.
Two dance as Brandon returns fire at them. It's a pretty little jig that they do. Armor finds the one that she's engaging falling back, but only so they can raise their rifle and shoot. Which … might be dumb. This time, the gunman opens fire on the ex-soldier.
Isis has catwalked along the wall above Alison … which is when the wall explodes from under her. It tumbles down on Hank and Alison … taking Isis with it.
The others might not realise it but the Purifiers start to fall back.
Alison hasn't had a lot of experience with combat but she knows to listen to those who have. If they are saying something is strange, then something is strange. She just doesn't have any idea what it could be.
Alison gets a helpful hint when the wall explodes alongside her. A squeal of surprise as brinks and mortar tumble down up on her, her shield absorbing most of the blows though she still falls to the ground under the rubble. At least there is a lot of noise to absorb. As soon as gets out from under the debris, she'll kick someone's butt.
Brandon doesn't need to be looking around to see what's happening around him. < Diversion. > he broadcasts into the minds of those he can identify as combatants on his side of things. He shifts his aim to the Purifiers themselves instead of at their feet. Those who get hit will certainly feel it as it's concussive force which won't make them bleed but send them flying. Which might make them bleed. Such is life when you're a scumbag. < Eyes in the sky. Report on ground forces. >
Captain Marvel blinks, and ignores the gunfire as she soars into action. First, she moves to catch Isis, seeing the woman falling off the collapsing wall, "Gotcha! Hang on!" She then fires photon blasts to vaporize some of the larger pieces of rubble, trying to keep them from harming bystanders as best as she can.
The bullets do nothing whatsoever in terms of penetrating Hisako's armor, never mind posing a threat to her as long as she stays armored. The explosion nearby is a good bit more worrisome, and the Purifiers are relatively forgotten (as the non-threat to *her* that they are) when she dives, and her armor grows - trying to cup its hands protectively over Hank and Alison. Dazzler's shield may mean Hisako doesn't need to worry as much about her, but the less Alison has to worry about, the better, one would presume.
For all his predatorial appearance, Hank's heart is that of a protector. When the wall explodes, he's too slow to catch Isis and thankful to see that Captain Marvel is there to catch her. He makes sure that his feline friend is okay, and then he shifts his visor to thermal imaging to see if he see what's caused the explosion, to see if there's any targets that are as yet unseen in the dust, or perhaps invisible to normal sight. "Well done, Armor…thank you, nice catch Captain Marvel." He makes sure Alison is still up and raring to go. "Dazzler…do your senses allow for you to see the unseen?"
The Sarge's military bearing reminds Hank of one of his friends at RESCUE, Posse. If anyone was hurt, he'll see about getting them to safety, normal people are lamentably exploding masonry soluble.
When the wall collapses, there's a wave of shock and terror that washes out over the gathering. It quickly changes to surprise as Carol scoops up Isis. The feline like mutant, clawing at the superheroine with razor sharp claws before realising what's going.
"Thank you…" she says. "We have to help Hank and Alison …" she says to the woman.
Hisako can indeed shield the pair from the falling bits of wall. But it keeps her busy while she does. It will take Alison a moment to dig her way out, but she can.
In the background, sirens sound. The police are responding, they'll be here … in good time.
Brandon hits several of the retreating Purifiers. And yes, they do indeed bleed. One is knocked down as he stumbles over debris - Brandon can catch him. The others put more distance between them. One of the stops though, to face those around them "And that Brothers and Sisters is why you should never let such unclean scum into your communities. Look at the destruction they've caused."
Are they … trying to pin the damage from the walls on the mutants?
A blast of photon energy from Alison beneath the rubble, focused and only powerful enough to throw immediate debris off her. Not flying through the air energy, she wouldn't want to hurt someone else with the bricks. Clambering up, and looking rather annoyed, she starts looking around to see if any innocent bystanders need to be dragged from the ruins. "I can do echolation, Hank" she offers, "But I don't really see into other dimensions or anything like that." It looks like the bad guys are withdrawing while spreading fake news. But with all the witnesses around, who is going to believe them?
Brandon leaps after the one who falls, the cat mecha landing gracefully and putting one giant paw on the man's chest. Firmly. He's not going anywhere but he can still breath. Mostly. < The sad truth is, some will actually listen to them. The world would be a better place without scum like them. > Though as tempting as it is, he's not suffocating the one beneath his paw.
Captain Marvel looks unfazed by the scratching, "You're welcome…" She sets Isis down, "And it looks like they have things well in hand, so I'm going to go round up some terrorists." She grins, and then soars over towards the one that shouted.
"Hey, shut your racist piehole, punk!" With that, well, she doesn't give him a full strength punch, but scales it down to be a regular human punch.
Well, a pretty strong human punch.
Well, a very strong human punch. But in any event, she swings and knocks him down to the ground, not a lethal hit, despite her strength, as she says, "You shoot up the place, rig a building to collapse, and you think that makes the mutants here the bad guys? Maybe you should look in a mirror pal!" Oh yeah, she's definitely cheesed off at this guy.
"There would have been no destruction if not for your scheming!!" Hisako shouts at the retreating extremists - but she's suppressing the impulse to go after them and flatten them. It would just make her look worse at this point. "Mind matters of your own hygiene, or the next time, we'll be able to smell you before you have a chance to hurt anyone!"
Sometimes, harsh language is really the most suitable weapon. Hisako focuses on making sure people - both those she knows by name, and relative strangers - are as close to 'okay' as the situation allows … and she's double-checking that the clinic itself is relatively intact.
Brandon traps the Purifier who has tripped. That Purifier tries to squirm under the paw but thinks better of it. "Accosting good tax paying citizens." Some might believe these Purifiers but there's a lot of people here who are shaking their heads at the other Purifiers.
Carol catches a second, the one who had spoken. He goes down like a bag of wet cement. He won't be speaking anytime soon. Probably not such a bad thing.
The remaining Purifiers scramble away and melt into the shadows just as the police start to arrive.
"Are you alright Alison? Hank? Hisako?" Isis asks, her eyes glowing neon blue. "That lady saved me…" That lady. Does she mean Carol? Yes, yes she does.
There's no damage to the clinic. It was only the walls near the building that were affected. This was planned … that much is sure. But … why?
Moving to where Isis is, he makes sure the feline mutant is okay. "Sense anything else, Isis?" His thermal imaging didn't seem to register anything, naked eyes seem not to, and then he moves to make sure that Alison's fully unburied and starts studying the pattern of the blasts, wondering if there's signs of it having been demolished like the water main the other day.
He's also scenting for anyone trapped by the rubble, or hurting (other than the Purifiers!). Truly - this hate and destruction - it just wearies him, saddens him that people can still, after all the wonders that have been, the miracle that life always is instead focus on cruelty, ignorance, and hatred.
Captain Marvel waves over to the police, "Hey there!" She takes advantage of the fact that, well, she's famous, she's an Avenger, and she's a hero here. Explaining to the cops what happened and how the Purifiers started this mess and were endangering people. Fortunately, people were here to help, etc. etc. etc.
At least this should take some heat off of the mutant clinic, at least from the law enforcement end of things. Tomorrow, she'll talk to Steve and Tony about something more concrete for these guys… maybe some of the Young Avengers she's been hearing about.
"I'm fine, Isis. Thanks." Alison picks her way over the rubble but can't seem to find anyone hurt. That's good. Unusual for terrorists, but good. She makes her way over to where some of the Purifiers have been captured, frowning down at them. "You people suck. Seriously." Then she looks a little distraught. "Oh no, the music machine! Hank, the wall has fallen on it. Dang it!" But what can she do in this situation for the terrified audience? To cheer people up. To give them the heart to fight for what is right. She can sing. Even without any music, she steps up on the dais to sing 'We Shall Overcome'.