20203/Get Your Cat Out of the Gutter

Get Your Cat Out of the Gutter
Date of Scene:	09 March 2025
Location:	Central Park Zoo
Synopsis:	Cannonball, Rachel, and Darcy face off against Cheetah.
Cast of Characters:	Monet St. Croix, Rachel Summers, Samuel Guthrie, Darcy Lewis

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Monet St. Croix has posed:
It was nighttime. Central Park was alive as the weather flickered between the familiarity of spring and with the spike of winter, dancing between the threads. But on this night, more was just alive than the tourists that wandered through everywhere. What sort of native new yorker went through the park at night that wasn't going to get caught up in trouble?
    Or in this case, already caught up. There was a brutal melee going throughout the Central Park Zoo as the lions were roaring, the cats screaming, and the prey animals shrieking

Rachel Summers has posed:
Honestly, Rachel had been out and about to relax. Many of the X-Family had told her to try and get comfortable with this new world that wasn't so...apocolypse-y compared to the one she'd come from, and avoiding giant brawls or mutant purging attempts would be an improvement from the last time.

Hands holding onto a corner store coffee in a disposable cup, she was busy sipping away at the beverage when the sounds of distress, audible and psychic caught her attention.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie was out on patrol, and hearing a ruckus, he will call it in, and heads towards the commotion. "Officer Guthrie, something is going on in the park, near the Zoo. Ah am heading in to check it out." So Sam in full NYPD uniform is heading towards the zoo area at a jog.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Tapping away at her phone - her brow furrowed in concentration at whatever was on the screen as her glasses hung on her nose - Darcy let out a melodramatic sigh. "You guys are really doing great - gonna look really good on your post-grad paperwork," she drawled in a bored fashion. About her a number of college aged students were working to help tidy up around the Central Garden with the lethargic nature of... well, college aged students looking to pad their resumes.

At first, Darcy ignored the sounds of animals fighting - it was a zoo, but as it began to escalate she looked up from her phone and began to look around. "Keep up the good work gang, i'll uh... go see what is going on," she explained - her nerves turning on edge as she moved to investigate.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
What follows is a possibly familiar sight (at least for Sam patrolling). It's a dark mutant woman wearing a red outfit that's just SLAMMED through the nearest wall, smashing through a veterinary clinic office, out the other end.. Then a blur as streaking right after her faster than the eye can see a woman covered in fur and spots..
    Who is a big, fast, Cheetah.

Rachel Summers has posed:
Not a cop, just another mutant civillian, but Rachel's own path brings her closer, deeper into the zoo space with every step while her own coffee is tossed into a trashcan on the way past. Keep the world saved, right?

Her running steps were certainly a lot more subtle than flying over there, but that still nearly had her knocking into Darcy as she ran by.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie will call in a code, telling them what is going on. "Super human ruckus, Ah will engage, get special units to put a area around it." He unques the mic, and then heads in with two steps and a jump, he is blasting towards the blur of a woman, to get her off the other.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Freezing up, Darcy's hands clenched into fists as she tensed up - drawing her shoulders up and almost turtling into her coat at the display. Great. More nonsense. Even as she froze up while moving to investigate the temperate zone, her undergrads had already begun to panic and flee - dropping all manner of implements for cleaning as they abandoned community service in favor of their own lives.

Grimacing as she realized that she had found herself in yet another 'commotion' she snapped out of her thoughts with a glare as Rachel ran by - only just jumping out of the way. "Hey! What's going on?!" she yelled, breaking into a jog as she trailed after her Summers, "I have -friends- and -experience- with this sort of thing!" she finished as her charges vacated the area and left her in private with... whatever was happening. Even as she ran, she pulled out her phone again, tapping out a text message to report to her superiors in SHIELD and that she was 'handling it.'

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Rachel is able to pick up the telepathic signs of a mystically altered being. Cheetah's mind is incredibly -off-. Bloodlust, berserker fury written all over her consciousness. Likely hard to probe and push in even if one actually tried.
    Cheetah goes to smash Monet hard over onto the ground with the sound of ribs cracking like piano keys, going to casually backflip off the unconscious woman's body, do a sommersault several dozen feet up in the air, and then a clean landing. Blood dripping down her claws. Blood dripping down her fangs.
    Her eyes would snap around over to lock her gaze with the rapidly approaching Darcy. Her latest target. But that distraction is enough for Sam to rocket smash over into Cheetah's side!
    SLAM!
    It sending her flying away even as she would flip through the air to hit the ground, rolling to bleed off the momentum.. And then be chasing Sam at high speed.
    Before going to then try and double back when he was fully committed to evading or chasing her to turn to race back towards Darcy!

Rachel Summers has posed:
"No idea!" Rachel calls back to Darcy without slowing.

A lie...telepathic sense made it pretty clear what was going on, but she didn't really want to stop and examine or explain things. With her hair hanging free and her form wrapped in casual clothing Rachel didn't exactly look like a superheroine, but her arrival? Well, maybe a little more when that flaming psychokinetic aura ignited around her. A lift of her hand, Cheetah's charge would find herself meeting an invisible wall before she could reach Darcy while the redhead's own path brought her towards the injured Monet.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Stutter stepping to a stop, Darcy's eyes went wide at the spectacle - licking her lips as the combination of anxiety and adrenaline coursed through her veins. SHIELD training kicked in as she assessed the scene before her, a hand dropping to a coat pocket to grab... a tazer. Typical - and it's not as if she was often given anything by SHIELD.

Levelling the taser as she locked eyes with Cheetah, she only -barely- jumped as Sam burst onto the scene. "Frick! -Who- attacks a -Zoo?!-" she quipped aloud, glancing toward Summers incredulously. "This is the best -" she began, and then stopped.

Whatever training she had received must have payed off as Cheetah came racing back around - levelling the tazer and firing head on for whatever good it would do before she began to spring to the side - the coils of her taser impacting the very wall protecting her as she rolled to her feet.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie is turning around to come make a second pass. He calls out "Here Kitty Kitty." He calls out trying to make the woman charge him. He knows if he can get her to attack him he should be ok, as he's nigh-invulnerability while he is blasting.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The beasts in the zoo are howling. Screaming. The lions, the tigers, the wolves. All of them are howling over as if they were greeting a rising blood moon.
    Sam goes to charge along at Cheetah, who seems to almost spin on a dime and -stops-, all her momentum from going at ridiculous speeds terminating on a dime. But it at least aborts her attack over on Darcy. And then Rachel is going to throw up a powerful field over in front of Cheetah, stopping her cold.
    Darcy goes to get out the taser and it zots over into the side of Cheetah, singing fur. In a posture akin to almost bring up the parable of 'don't poke a bear with a stick'. Cheetah is seemingly held still for just a moment. A moment..

Then Phoenix-embered willpower is met with berserk fury and bloodlust of a madwoman empowered by a god of madness and murder. And matched.
    Cheetah slashes. Energy crackles as psionic force field meets magical claws which could cut through Kryptonians and pierce anything short of Amazonian bracer or adamantine shields..
    Shields break.
    Cannonball slams into Cheetah from the side, hammering her away as the battle of blood and will was aborted as she would be flung away once more. Presuming Rachel keeps up her approach, she would see Monet in a state of.. Well, most of thsoe bits outside Monet should be inside her.
    And Darcy gets a front row seat to the power of an Omega level psionic.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Rising from her roll, the alleged field agent that was Darcy Lewis broke into a sprint toward Rachel and Monet - realizing her place in the fight as she slid on her knees, tearing up her jeans and sliding to a stop beside the wounded Monet. "Go do - whatever it is you do!" she snapped, leaning over the wounded mutant and trying to make things right as best she could with her field training and years of watching Grey's Anatomy and House and reading any medical text that occupied her attention for more than an hour.

"I'll uh... keep her stable," she professed, doing her best to apply 'battlefield medicine' to Monet - trying to maintain a low profile as Sam provides the best distraction in the world to prevent Darcy's future evisceration.

Rachel Summers has posed:
That was...concerning, Rachel was looking down at her wounded friend? Collegue? Fellow mu-...let's just stick with Monet. A little whince and she was digging in her pocket, activating the distress beacon of her own communicator for a medivac for Monet. Her attention shifts as the wall shatters and Cheetah attempts to rush her, but Officer Sam is on the 'case' and instead she makes to stand. Darcy has come running over and this Summers/Grey was no 'Dr Grey'.

"Keep pressure, help will be on the way," she offers to the human woman, standing away from the injured Monet as her telekinesis worked to 'unevicerate' Monet. It wouldn't heal her, but putting the outsides inside again was a good start and telekinesis was about as sterile and infection free as one could get.

Once that job was done? She'd turn, ready to join Sam in his cat-wrangling.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie will think out trying to get to Rachel or Monet. <M, you ok? We know why Cheetah is going bonkers?" He will move to a hover to try to lure the villainess to charge him, and callls out to her "Cheetah, your under arrest, you have the right to remain silent." He knows it is mostly useless but hey maybe it will help keep her centered on him.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet is unconscious. Which is a good thing. Even as Rachel and Darcy go to quickly try and work on stabilizing her. Just stopping the bleeding is enough for now. Keeping her alive means even if they're doing the equivalent of stopping the bleeding with a psychic soldering iron to sew it shut or applying duct tape.. They work with what they have.

Cheetah smirks, "Like I need a reason?" She goes to dart along. Hitting at Cannonball wtih high speed hit and run attacks. Claws slashing. Even if impacting they would ricochet off his shield to no avail. But she was faster than he was, and could -turn- faster. So the fight between the pair was an effective stalemate.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Leaning over the unconcious Monet, Darcy does her best to patch up what the weird mutant powers didn't. As soon as things seemed 'normal' enough she squirmed out of her coat, grimacing at the stab of winter's last retort to spring and did her best to wrap the heavy courdoury about the mutant in place of a space blanket that her training told her was most applicable.

Spinning about from the form of her self-appointed charge, she pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and reloaded her taser - rising up into an almost textbook combative stance in an attempt to try and protect the downed mutant.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Darcy goes to help work at stabilizing Monet. Who had taken a series of brutal claw slashes that had gone through her gut and out the other end. What magical claws could do was fascinating in a completely morbid way. Slashes that could cut the atoms off of molecules at lightspeed. On a wretch of a woman that was empowered by a god. To Rachel, if she was scanning for such things there was the awareness of the primeval entity of murder that empowered Cheetah to her eternal berserker bloodlust. It was wretchedly twisted.

Rachel Summers has posed:
Stalemate it might be...at least until Sam has a ringer in this particular match. Rachel was freed up and the telekinetic was following the attacks, the exchanges with her eyes as fast as she could. Too frenzied, to wild to easily force her mind into. Physics however? Well, she doubted there was a counter for that. She'd wait for a gap, a moment Sam would create and then...her telekinesis lashed out, catching Cheetah mid-air and pulling her to an inverted hover with nothing to touch or lever off.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie will look to her, and says "Well, you have been a bad kitty, time for a time out." He will try a fake left, but kicking himself right, to try to clip, her, trying to get her to read his action wrong.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Her gaze tossing between the fight and Monet, Darcy bit her bottom lip as indecision overcame her. She turned, kneeling down over the mutant and bundling her coat up beneath her more. "Hey - it's gonna be ok uh... you," she professed flashing a smile. "Don't you worry," she finished.

Standing up over Monet, she turned and faced toward the fight - levelling her tazer and trying to read the progress of the fight.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Rachel's mind goes to reach out. She clasps at the woman that is challenging Sam with strikes moving along substantial portions of the speed of light, dancing around him like she was a Flash.. Rachel's mental grip finds her, firms, and locks her down over in place, hard.

Sam's rocket-embraced form then goes to slam over into Cheetah, and there's the sound of bones breaking from the impact as she would be flung into the woods surrounding the park!

Darcy, standing protectively over Monet, can see those dark irises flickering and hear the shriek of pain from her that is accompanied over by a chorus of the b easts within the zoo.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Letting out a slight whine, her eyes darting around nervously, Darcy glanced about and called out. "Um... gang... I know there's - that sort of thing... but... the Zoo?" she hazarded, kneeling down to check on Monet again and ensure there wasn't any blood coming through her coat.

Rachel Summers has posed:
"The X-men should be on their way to collect her, take her somewhere they can treat her," Rachel offers as she speaks. The roar of the Zoo didn't really eem to bother her, but then the 'shriek' echoed probably had a psychic element that she'd felt herself radiate from Monet. Unpleasent, but it mean the other woman was still living, perhaps even semi-concious.

"Just hold on."

With that, she was already lifting up, floating into the air...the threat had been flung out into the wild, but she intended to detain Cheetah rather than leaving her a raging, wounded animal out among civillians.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Nodding toward Rachel, Darcy stowed her tazer and turned toward Monet - trying to remember the best ways to carry the wounded. Without another recourse, she settled for shoving her arms into the eaves of her own coat and hooking her hands under the mutant's armpits, starting to drag her away.

Pulling Monet out of the direct line of aggression and trying to make her way toward the entrance of the zoo, she kept her gaze skyward for some kind of aerial intervention - all too familiar with how the supers operated.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
With Cannonball repeatedly herding Cheetah along in coordination over with Rachel's psionics they're able to force the werecat out of her cover in the park as it gives Darcy cover to haul Monet. The woman is heavy.. She might have to be told to lay off having so many Twinkees. But Darcy was able to drag her towards cover and out of the line of fire. And claw.

And it's now a faceoff between Cheetah, Rachel, and Cannonball. And Cheetah goes to decide that this is not her night and disengages. Vanishing into nothingness, racing away at high speed and evading pursuit