12581/Rogue Captured

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Rogue Captured
Date of Scene: 10 September 2022
Location: Industry Roads: Salem Center
Synopsis: A big wild thing happens at a train station. Everyone is kewl!
Cast of Characters: Rogue, Jimmy Hudson, Monet St. Croix, Alison Blaire, Kitty Pryde, Tabitha Smith, Jean Grey, Noriko Ashida




Rogue has posed:
Yet another calm evening at Xaviers School, is suddenly interrupted by chaos!

The muscle car engine of Rogue's 69 Dodge Charger roars down the drive to the school gate, and barrels right through the gates themselves! Normally, the gates would likely hold since they're reinforced, but whomever was driving the car had initiated the gates to open, but gave them not even remotely enough time to do so before they road the car right on through and down the main driveway toward the school itself!

Laying on the horn, the occupants within it are clearly trying to get the attention of anyone within ear shot that they can! The black and green muscle car is wavering back and forth before it comes to a sudden stop at the circle drive, jumping the curbe and crashing in to some of Ororo's well cultivated gardens!

"Help! Help! Help!" Voices scream from within the car, as they throw the doors open, three young High School students jumping out of the car, all looking absolutely frantic as they rusn toward the main building! "Help! We've been attacked! Assholes in the city!" One of the fatter children shouts as the other two run ahead toward the front doors!

Jimmy Hudson has posed:
    It was on the back porch that Jimmy had found himself. A late evening beer with some measure of seclusion was a fine thing. But seclusion can so often be a fleeting thing, especially on such well populated school grounds. And especially when it's a school for X-folks.
    That sound of the car and its tires and the screeching is a familiar thing to most anyone, and a good number of people instinctively cringe when they hear it expecting that sound of impact. Jimmy's one of them as he lifts his head at first. Hears that kawham into the gates, then realizes the sound ain't stopping. Quick as a gun he's up, taking one final sip of the beer before tossing it aside into the empties container then breaks into a job at first taking the path around the mansion...
    But when he hears the voice then he turns that jog into a run.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The sudden yelling has Monet, whom was enjoying a relatively quiet evening until the front gate got smashed in, letting out a sigh, "Bother." She goes to send out an alert telepathically. <<All available X-Men, a number of students have broken through the front gate in a panic. They said that they were attacked and are in Anna-Marie's vehicle.>> An alert sent out, and Monet is flying over on approach. Pushing herself up by several meters so she can loop around and if there is any sort of pursuit go to smash down in front of it to cut off anyone that might be attacking the front gates. There's still -some- light and the Fleebs aren't on campus so hopefully there will be no repeat of the vampire incident.

Alison Blaire has posed:
Alison already regrets being at the school tonight.

Not even been here five minutes and already there's someone storming the gates in Rogue's, now all beat up, charger.. "Hey, you there, chubby one... why are you yelling, what's going on?" She had just gotten out of her mercedes, all yellows and purples with a lovely starburst on the hood.

She twists her keys over her finger, squinting at the kids. For all she knows these little hooligans have busted up Rogue's car and are now trying to play it off as someone attacked them! Can't trust the youths anymore. They're so devious and untrustworthy. "Where's Rogue?" Because surely she'll get them to the bottom of this!

<<"I'm out here. They're very sweaty... Not that it proves anything other than Rogue is going to be pissed about her car.. wait til you see this thing. It's all messed up.">>

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Up in her room, Kitty Pryde is lying on her bed on her back, finger swiping across a tablet as she goes through some technical diagrams for one of her projects. "Hrm," she murmurs to herself. The noise draws Lockheed's attention, the dragon leaning over to bonk her hand lightly with the top of his head to get some attention.

An alarm going off on her tablet is followed soon enough by the sounds of the kid's voices outside. "Uh oh," Kitty says, jumping up and grabbing her phone to slide it into her back pocket. She reaches out for Lockheed who is already flapping over into her arms. Together the pair run through the outside wall, appearing on the second story and then dropping to disappear into the ground for a moment before popping back. Kitty releases the dragon to fly for himself as she runs over towards the sounds of the disturbance.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabby was conveniently washing the Van. That yellow and black delica older than half the school's population. The sound of the muscle car skidding into Ororo's garden getting a wince and maybe, just maybe. Tabby, ex-thief, daughter of a mechanic and maybe had more than a few lessons and years dealing with vehicles might need to volunteer some more driving lessons.

Terrifying.

When Alison interrogates some of the kids she nods "Se know you got her car. I mean if you're gonna swipe somethinbg at least take Scott's." she suggests.

Logan probably has that car.

Dressed in knee length cutoffs which she refuses to call jorts when they used to be skinny jeans. The blonde with some old workboots and a flannel shirt in blue and gray plaid. It's only tartan on a skirt or kilt. Yellow cateyes on her nose.

<<I'm out front with the van,enough room and gas for a posse. We roll!>> she offrers to drive as many as she can fit in the vehicle.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean is probably in her office, where she lives every bit as much as in her actual room. Maybe she's browsing some boring spreadsheets! There are a lot of those. Gotta keep that spaghetti sauce stocked, the soap dispensers filled! Yet as trouble stirs, she very quickly catches wind of it.

Contrary to some student lore (and her unofficial nickname as the Eye of Sauron), the Headmistress doesn't know everything that's going on, all the time. She's not reading everyone's minds constantly. At the same time, fear, agitation, panic, these are things that on the psychic plane have the properties of something like a contagion, or a growing fire. One person in distress is a blip of sorts. But as people react, those feelings compound, until it all becomes very, very loud.

It helps that M can tag her in directly, too!

Unfortunately, Jean does not MOVE at the speed of thought, so it takes her a few moments to navigate her way out to the front porch. <<I'm coming,>> she lets those now shouting at her head directly know. <<Try and get them calmed down and talking. This doesn't really sound like joyriding.>>

By the time she's making her way out the front doors, she's thrown a light school hoodie-jacket on and makes her way toward wherever the students are being gathered. "Is everyone alright?" she checks, looking over the group. "Calm down, and just tell us what happened, we'll get to the bottom of it. If anyone's hurt, we'll get you down to see Hank ASAP."

Rogue has posed:
With some of the adults, 'adults', showing themselves, the three kids all come to a stop near the front doors, and they all breathe heavily with sweat beads rolling down their faces. The heavier one looks over toward Tabitha, then to the arriving others. "Woah, that's Dazzler..." One of the smaller ones says.

"Shutup, Berto! They took Rogue!" The fatty exclaims, with a manic expression strewn across his face. He flings a arm back at the car, and the gate far beyond it back at the edge of the property. "Some guys, back in Salem Center. We were in the arcade. We saw her coming to pick us up, and like... These guys all rushed out of the back of a giant ass truck! A semi-truck, or whatever! They hit her with gas cans... Like, holy shit, you wouldn't believe how loud they were! I thought those things hissed, like in the movies, but fuck me... no way! They shook the whole damn pizza place!"

"Stop cursing! The Headmistress is here, Derek!" One of the other kids says while slapping the chubby one's shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah!" Derek grumbles. "But, when we went outside to see what was going on, like... the guys were picking Rogue up and tossing her in the back of a SUV that was inside the Semi Truck's trailer! We... okay, well, Rogue's car was still on, so like... we decided to go after them, you know... like ya'll are always rushin' off to help. They just went by the school! Ya gotta go get'em! They're headin that way!" The fatty says, slinging his left hand toward the west beyond the tree line of the neighboring property!

The three kids go back to panting and pacing around as they try to come down from the heights of stealing Rogue's car and chasing the truck all the way back here.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
With reinforcements arriving, Monet St. Croix debates yelling over at them to make their story straight but decides in the spirit of things to not. She would defer over to Jean. "If they were able to overpower Rogue.." She would frown over. That would require extremely heavy firepower. "That is a posisble indicator of an oncoming attack." If Rogue had been defeated and abducted.
    She moves to frown over and going quiet before throwing further inquiries after the studetns. That was for something for the teachers to do to make sure that they did so in a coordinated, rather than panicked fashion. Even if it was more effiicent to just pull the information from their heads.

Jimmy Hudson has posed:
    "Someone able ta take Rogue ain't anyone casual." Jimmy's voice is heard as he finishes that run up, slowing to a jog and ending to stand there in front of the kids and looking around at the surprise sudden posse.
    He turns his attention on the rambling information given then looks at those assembled out front of the mansion. His gaze settles on Jean, instantly giving recognition to the leader type in the moment, "We need to move and fliers..." He glances at the head mistress, "Eyes on." Though it's not his place to give anything close to orders.
    He mainly teaches dodgeball.

Alison Blaire has posed:
Dazzler does her level best to calm the kiddos down, "Alright, breath.. everyone take a deep- They did what?" Took Rogue? She turns towards Monet and Tabitha with a raised brow. That's possible? Someone can ~take~ Rogue somewhere that she doesn't want to go?

Jimmy's voice draws Ali's attention and she nods agreement to that observation, "No they are definitely not the usual suspects if they're man'handling Rogue." Though, now that Jean is here, the blonde is looking up at her...

Then peeling off her leather jacket, "Alright." Jacket tossed in the passanger seat of her car, she sits down to pull off her sandals in favor of a pair of tennis shoes she had stashed beneath the seat. Jewelry removed, hair tied back, and a boss pair of Gucci glasses resting on her brow holding back her bangs.

"Imagine being some jack ass who comes to Salem Center and screws with one of us.. Couldn't be me." Fingers laced, knuckles popped, headed for Tabitha's van. "Shotgun."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
<<Someone inside get some gasmasks?!>> she calls out telepathically. If that's how they snagged the Belle. "So okay. They're in a big ass truck. They just drove passed us down Gramalkin. They won't be too far away!" she says aloud and hmms.

<<So like, we let the truck find it's destination. Stop their crap there. We just stop the truck early on the road, that gets us nothing right. They try again and maybe like keep trying this.>> she keeps the X-Ish stuff to the telepathic link.

The rest is with talky words. "Not the first time we've been jumped in Salem Center Ali. Last batch of Friends of Humanity tried snagging me for their porn studio." Torture stuff. There's deepfakes out there.

"There's like whole damn social networks dedicated to stalking is. You don't wanna see what's on the hard drives we've snagged trying to uproot all that crap." Tabby says and visibly cringes like it was the middle of winter making her shiver.

The keys are fished out of her pocket and along the way around the van she slides the side door open so anyone not flying can get in while Dazzler officially claims shotgun.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde looks up to Lockheed. "Hear that? An SUV driving down the road that direction," she says, pointing to the west and the tree line of the neighboring property. "See if you can find them and then fly above and guide us in if we have trouble finding them," she says to the dragon who gives a rapid flap of his wings as he takes off. At Jimmy's comment about fliers, she nods and says, "Monet, want to go with him and if you need can each scout a direction if they reach any turnoffs, and let us know where you're at?" she says, tapping a temple.

Seeing Tabitha's van, she asks, "Tabitha, you driving?" as she heads for Tabitha's van. "Jean, can you get an exact description from the kids on the SUV, and the truck, and share it with us?" she asks. Her face is pressed in a serious expression, eyes aglow with anger that someone has Rogue-napped their Rogue.

Jean Grey has posed:
"We all have our weaknesses," Jean points out to Monet, and then glances on to Jimmy, nodding. "You and Logan could handle that, and maybe Piotr if he could change fast enough, but without warning, that kind of thing could take a lot of us down. Even Rogue. Makes me think these people know what they're doing, unfortunately." Then it's a quick pivot back to the panicked students.

It's OK," the Headmistress is quick to reassure them, especially when they pause in answering to worry about getting demerits for LANGUAGE. They get a pass today! "You're not going to get in any trouble, just keep talking."

Of course, the woman's reaction is very much not that everything is OK. But one of those rules about being responsible for young people is that in situations like this, you get to sacrifice some of your own emotional flexibility for the sake of keeping them calm. "I want you all to pause a little, take a deep breaths, and count down in your head from ten. And as you do that, I want you to think about what you saw again, just run it back through your heads. I'm going to take a look, OK? So I want a nice clear picture, not a bunch of craziness." This kind of stuff, fortunately, is widely taught at the school - precisely for these kind of reasons.

"And after that, you're going to go inside. I'll grab someone who's free to come and check you over, and then you can try and relax a little bit." As she says the last, she makes the familiar gesture of mental focus, raising a pair of fingers to her temple. Of course, she can sift through their minds more aggressively, but clarity is best, and it's a teachable moment for them.

Regardless of how much she gets, once the van pulls up, she starts toward it. "Let's get a move on. They shouldn't be so far that we can't catch up- even if that means a couple of us have to get out and fly to do it."

Rogue has posed:
The three children all are trying to calm down when they get that initial burst of information out. The words from the older ones get them to feel reassured that something is gonna happen.

"Right, yeah, okay..." Derek says as he puts his hands on his hips, and watches Lockheed fly off toward the direction he'd pointed at. "That's so cool..." He mutters before Jean's words draw his eyes back.

The other two are watching Alison get herself ready and head toward Tabi's van. "Can we come?" One of them asks before he too is looking toward Jean.

Now, the three are exhaling, and doing as the Headmistress points out. They all start to countdown, though one of them is skipping numbers eradically...

Jean gets a wealth of internal imagery, some of it connected to the situation that unfolded in Salem Center, some of it about the arcade games prior to the event, and some of it just frazzled and crazy, with a couple thoughts of Kitty's butt coming from the chubby kid's mind.

Hey, they're kids. Sue them!

A glimpse of the SUV is seen though, with a shot of some people shoving Rogue in to the side of one of its open doors, the people are hazey, as whatever gas they used is still wafting across the street and providing some cover, but the men themselves are in black and blue attire, denim trousers, dark hoodies, with gas masks on, and gloved hands... suggesting they do indeed know who they are literally manhandling!

Outside the school property the highway that connects to Greymalkin Lane seems cleary, with minimal vehicles on it at this hour of the evening... But up ahead, long down the way, is a large black and white Semi-Truck with a big trailer attached to it.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko has been working, or at least looking like she's working.  She actually got done a few hours ago and is currently cleaning out Pony's stall at the stables, well was.  Leaning up against the side of the stables, she spots the careening car but does nothing to stop it.  Rogue would have been upset any which way this went down, but as she sees the kids aren't in danger of running anyone over, she takes the small amount of time to go clean up after herself and take a quick shower.

The speedster ends up at the front porch around the time when the explanation is finally coming out.  "I bet it was that Home Depot asshole and his friends," Noriko posits quietly near the back of the group.

"I'll take my kicks," which just means, she's going to be running.  She takes off, using Lockheed as her marker, keeping him within sights while she runs ahead to scout and circle back and run ahead and circle back with the dragon.

Jimmy Hudson has posed:
    When one of them asks if they can come, Jimmy's quick with the response, "Hell no!" Though then he shakes his head a little and grunts, "I mean heck no."
    He points at the kids as if to double up the emphasis of the fact that they're definitely not coming as he starts to back away in the direction of that van, even though Alison cruelly called shotgun without proper warning.
    "Good just lead us on in when we got a good marker or target." Jimmy offers as he shoots a glance at Jean then nods before he turns around and on the mental channel his echoed voice is heard, << Careful out there, and good huntin'. >>

Alison Blaire has posed:
It's been a while since Ali was on a mission, or at the mansion at all really.. Tours or whatever. Something. She's busy. So Tabitha saying this sort of thing happens a lot recently has her squinting at the other blonde, "The hell is a Friends of Huma- you know what, don't worry about it. It sounds like something I don't want to know about." Because they have a porn studeo.

After she's properly in the front seat, where she belongs, Alison turns on the radio. She doesn't ask first, even though that's typically the domain of the driver, but there's a method to her madness. They don't need to actually /hear/ each other to communicate. Which is a good thing... because as soon as she finds a station she likes, she turns it up.

Tilting her head side to side and stretching as best she can in the front seat of a van.

Being limber is important.

So is mood music.

"~ I just took a D.N.A. test.
Turns out.
I'm a hundred. percent
That bitch..."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabby snappoints at Kitty as she waits for the rest of the team building to climb in. It might get a little cramped heer and there but a seven seater can sometimes accommodate a little more. "We have Ali on shotgun and stereo duty. a measure of trust that the performer doesn't mess with Tabby's presets. to get her powered up.

"So who wants to keep their psychic brains peeled for cops. Clean or dirty we're not gonna want sirens and lights in my rear view." she asks towards Monet and Jean.

The kids wanting to come get a smile and a shake of her head. "Sorry guys, Coach Hudson's right to say no. You'd probably clean house and not let us get our licks in. Someone gotta stick here and be like, defend the fort protect the kids and Lockheed. You guys were badass for getting though Rogue's ride back. We got this bit yo!" she reassures but totally makes sure the kids don't feel useless for being left behind.

Tabby always hated that feeling as a kid.

Despite the song playing not being that, she does drum the car door with an arm over the window. "All aboard? hahahahaha!" in her best Ozzy Osbourne impression. There is a grin of approval when Ali settles on a station and the song of their people.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
It would be helpful if Telepathy worked with Lockheed, though the dragon's never been readable by the telepaths at the school. Though if Monet is with him that definitely helps them with their link.

Kitty moves into a backseat of the van, but stands up on it, her head out of the roof as she keeps an eye on the fliers and a look out for the SUV or truck. Up ahead Lockheed flies fast enough to catch the traffic ahead. After doing a bit of a wider search he ends up flying high overhead of the semi-truck.

Kitty sticks her head back down into the van. "Looks like he's settled in above something," she says of the dragon, pointing out ahead the way Tabitha is going. "So, if they do use gas against us, that's not a good thing for me to phase around," she comments. "Just forewarned. Gets inside me easily that way."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There'sa sigh from Monet over as she would give a nod at Jean, "Very well." She would move to start to offer a sigh "VEry well thne." She would call out to Noriko, "And please do not get too far ahead." THen presuming with Jimmy in tow, she's moving to launch herself up and over into the air, starting to scan ahead. Trying to sweep for that particular mix of thoughts that was always Anna-Marie's particluar dumpling of a mind and tuning out what's going on the ground.
    She heads up about twenty or thirty meters in the air, and then is simply flying out towards the direction the children said the attack was in!

Jean Grey has posed:
Naturally, once Jean gets the info out of the students, she echoes it back to the others. Another familiar feeling for the regular players, where the shortcut of not having to explain things with wordy-words ever proves invaluable in tactically dicey, time-sensitive situations like this. Images! Woosh!

"No, you can't come this time." Firm mom voice! But the 'this time' is not accidental. Practice and work hard kids, and one day, you too can ride in the Blackb- Tabi's battle van? "For now, inside. After your med check up, I'll make sure you all get some extra free time, though." Video games are LIKE X-Men missions, right?

And onward to the van! The plan is set... until Noriko shows up. Since she wasn't there at first, it's necessary to take a moment to echo the info to her a second time, which Jean does rather purposefully. "Go. Get up ahead and find the van." This may be a slight countermanding of Monet's suggestion not to get too far ahead. Today, Jean wants her to let loose. "There's no -way- they'll kepp ahead of you. I'll keep tabs on you from the van." Perhaps a little more of the emotion is leaking through now, just how much that Rogue being the one in this situation worries her. Still, onward to glory. Unleash the speedster!

Rogue has posed:
The combined efforts of the dragon, the speedster, and the French Connection all lead to the Semi-Truck in-question being spotted down the highway outside the school property. It's moving at several miles over the speed limit, but seems to be doing its best not to look anything other than normal, like any other truck that travels up and down this stretch of road on any given moment of the day...

It won't take long for Tabitha's van of would-be heroes to catch up either, though it'll give Noriko enough time to do god knows how many sweeps around the large cargo truck. The driver's inside the truck, two people occupy the cab of the vehicle. One is wearing a black hoodie with the hood back, a hat on his head and a pair of sport shades over his eyes, the other is in a dark red shirt also with shades on. They are both just staring ahead, as they seem to be casually enjoying the drive.

There are no markings on the vehicle, nor on its trailer. The trailer is just white and black, with nothing overly out of the ordinary about it!

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would go to call over to the rest over while she would move on an interception course <<Target located. Shall we breach it and remove it from the road? What are your tactical instructions for the assault, Ms. Grey?>> Being formal here isn't she! Going at a higher elevation, Monet goes up another dozen meters, to a point where she has clear line of view over the entire area and also can move to dive on it hard if she has to..
    OR be in a good interception point if they have reinforcements. She's not bothering to try and scan vhe vehicle; without line of sight it would be difficult. And with all the mental yelling and jibber-jabber going on from the lollygaggers, there didn't seem much point in it.
    Not like their arrival was going to be stealthy.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
There's a slight tilt of Noriko's head at Jean's instruction, but nods once before she's off.  She smiles to herself.  Some on the road might notice her discharging some electricity along the way, leaving scores along the asphalt, a way to bleed off excess she'd been building up over the day.  She's not interested in killing someone all that easily.  The scores are way too close to the road to the school rather than farther off to be evidence of an altercation.

When Nori spots the van, she speeds up to scout the occupants, hopping  up on the deck to peek in, dropping around the back to run up the other side.  Then she spots the rest of the gang arriving and forces herself down in velocity to sync to their frame.

Good, I have backup.

It's the only thought before Noriko hops on the trailer hitch and then aims a fat bolt at one of the truck's tires from her gauntlet.

Jimmy Hudson has posed:
    In the back of the van, Jimmy keeps on his feet for the most part, one hand holding up against the roof and the other against the side of the vehicle. Just in case there comes a moment when things go pear shaped and movement is needed right quick.
    No words come from him on the chat channel of linked brains, and no sound from him in that vehicle since likely he wouldn't be heard over Alison's LOUD music. He focuses a bit inward, getting his game face on, then looks across the way at Kitty.
    He nods. No real message beyond just sharing that relatively peaceful moment before the mayhem starts.

Alison Blaire has posed:
It's so loud.

Alison is letting the music wash over, like the song says.

Never satisfied to let one song play to complition, she switches channels and Oooooohs when Alan Jackson plays. "Now that's a fight song!" Now that she's all limbered up, wristles wiggling, she glances back at the occupants of the van behind her.

"It actually is about to get hotter than a hoochie coochie.."

Noriko's doing her lightning thingy and Alison is ready to let loose!

"That lyric is so inappropriate."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabby nods to Jean and Kitty with plans and Lockheed and Nori mentions. "That phasing makes you a cheap date sometimes Kitty. We should hit more country bars and complaiin about the music." she adds and grins as she turns her head back to look over her shoulder. Makes sure no one is behind her and reverses out into a dirt kickisng J-Turn and peels off.

The directions given and mostly the long roads out in Westchester get the truck in sight. Staying just far enough back that she can follow and not be too far back or so close it looks like they're following. She isn't getting too crazy. Amazingly behind the wheel, she's not irresonsible at all. Still a bit of a leadfoot but driving kids around kinda forces you to mellow. Luckily the patience carries over on mission when she has multiple lives in her hands. <<We stop them now M, we don't know where they'd be operating out of. Let them reach their destination. We do this now, the assholes awaiting might rabbit and we got nothing. Rogue might not be their only hostage? We're commodities to these bastards at best.>> she points out.

Of course when Nori dos her thing and the sparks of eletricity can be seen Tabby slows down just enough to make sure she can stop fast. <<Never mind me then!>> she states and chuckles aloud. The van veering off road enough so that when the truck skids to a halt, so can the van and unload it's payload and party!

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Lockheed keeps pace with Monet up above the truck, the agile little flier flapping his wings rapidly to propel himself. The dragon is on the lookout for anything else in the area that might need attention drawn to it.

Back in the van, Kitty gets the sensations of heaving the loud music, interspersed with sixty mile an hour winds as she sticks her head back up through the van roof to get a better view of what's going on.

Ducking back down she thinks, <<Surge is going after a tire, be alert Tabi!>> She looks over to Jean. <<If we want to board them moving can TK us over. Though if Nori stops them...>> she thinks. <<Let's be ready for the SUV to roar out of the back if so, too.>>

Jean Grey has posed:
For the duration of the van ride, Jean doesn't have much to do but listen to Alison's music while playing her usual C&C role, keeping a link with their pair of scouts as they close on the truck. They're not so far ahead that the van can't catch up, and so she even starts to formulate a plan. Probably something nice where she mindjacks one of them and they park the vehicle politely. <<I could try and->>

Welp, would you look at that. Noriko is already doing destructive things!

Should Jean be surprised, here? No, she should not. And is not, frankly. Maybe in the back of her mind she knew as much, letting the speedster free in pursuit. Oh welll...

Inside, she nods to Kitty, moving to open the van on one side as they get closer. She really isn't too sure how their speeds will match up, like trying to solve a jerkass version of one of those math word problems. 'The kidnappers truck is going 70 MPH...' But complex battle math is Scott's thing. So she just kinda...

Well, she gets ready to CATCH the truck with her mind, if it totally flips its shit. Or just hurl Kitty at it, maybe. It really depends how spectacular this crash is.

FINGERS ON HER FOREHEAD, READY TO THINK REAL HARD!

Rogue has posed:
The efforts of Noriko pay off, in so far as to say the tire that she fires at suddenly explodes and sends the truck on a quite rapid increase of madness!

The driver inside can only do so much before it becomes completely outside of his control! The truck starts to wave back and forth upon the highway, the trairler mimmicking this back and forth motion, before it's cut from the back of the truck and is sent rolling through the airr!

At high speed, the trairler is going to roll a long way...

If it isn't suddenly grabbed by Jean's mental connection, her telekinetic control over other objects in the environment!

A light show follows with Noriko's lightning zipping around the outside of the trairler, while it is suspended in the air!

Detached from the black Semi Truck itself, the Truck regairns control of itself, kicking out on to the shoulder of the highway, it shoots dust up in to the airr before it rolls on ahead, and makes a sharp turn off of the highway on to a side road out toward the trairn car depot that rests off to the southwest!

Monet St. Croix has posed:
And with the trailer being nearly flipped, Monet is going to try and smash over into the back end of it now. Her intent is just tearing through it to open it up and confirm Rogue's presence. Then presuming Rogue is in i tand the southern belle is safe to move, M would go to take her to get ready to fall back.
    Presuming that Rogue is in the trailer Monet would quickly try and psychically scan her - if Rogue was not then she would move to help flip the trailer to the side to let the TabbyMobile continue the pursuit to leave teh trailer on the side of the road to block traffic.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko can hear and feel the tension between the trailer and the front cab.  She assumes that the truck will slow and just kind of stop.  At least that is what she'll say if anyone asks her what the hell she was thinking.

"Oops," she says to herself as she steps off of the frame of the trailer onto the cab as it starts to rip away.  She's not superman or anything, so she doesn't even bother trying to help with that.

"Alley oop!" the speedster shouts as she holds onto the back of the semi cab for the little detour to the shoulder of the highway.  She coughs as the dust shoots down into her lungs.

<<Cab going southwest.  I'm on it,>> Noriko reports back through that thread of mental connection to Jean.  <<Literally.>>

Jimmy Hudson has posed:
    The sound of mayhem barely creeps above the sound of the radio but it's definitely heard by the feral-in-denial as he braces himself with his arms and legs against the van's sides. Just making sure that he's set for when the chase reaches that point when the doors open.
    He takes up a spot to the side and slightly behind Kitty as she makes ready for that Jean-aided deployment when it's needed. He spares a single moment looking at the face that Jean's making...
    "Good game face." He comments, though likely not heard since Alison's music is SO LOUD.

Alison Blaire has posed:
"Subtle." Alison says when the trailer goes a flying, only to be caught by Jean, and descimated by Monet. She raises a brow and drums the tips of her fingers on the dash, swerving with the vehicle now dodging all kinds of janky ass falling scraps of metal because this is the action segment!

She has no real control over the vehicle, but everyone knows that in racing events on video games, you lean and swerve in your seat.

That's how things work.

~Never knew how much that muddy water meant to me..."

She glances back at Jimmy, who she can't hear, but can definitely see saying something. She grins real big, lots of white teeth, and gives him (And Jean) a thumbs up. "IT'S FINE! WE'RE DESTROYING THE TRUCK SEE? THAT'S THE PLAN RIGHT?"

Pointing out the windshield at Monet tearing the whole trailer part like she's opening a bag of doritos.

"WORKING AS INTENDED."

She could have thought it, sure, but this was funnier.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Well. At least the chaos isn't Tabby's fault this time and she is amused. The trailer is flipping and flopping in the air and the blonde behind the van's wheel really hopes that they didn't shut off the Belle's powers. That's some neck breaking, spine crushing, vehicle nagling not fun for her. <<If Rogue's in there, Jimmy. You're probably gonna have a bad time. May need her to snag your power for healing if she's hurt!>> she points out. The benefits of having three telepaths in a mind link with everyone. Much range and you don't have to actually tune out the jams on the speakers.

When the trailer stops moving and gets set down, the van is pulled up. She keeps the engine revving and ready to roll on. <<Nori, let the truck reach it's stop. Then maybe start wrecking anything and everything with wheels till we catch up. Save us some people to punch please?>> she suggests while the speedster is still in range. <<Cats outta the bag, but we don't want them scattering to try their bullshit again!>>

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde sticks her head up out of the roof again and winces as she sees the trailer go flipping. "Well if she's in there she can survive it at least," Kitty mumbles as she pulls her head back down in.

She's reading to go as well if Jean decides it is go-time. While up above, with the trailer removed but the cab continuing on, Lockheed continues to fly sentinel above it, giving people a point in the sky to help pinpoint where it is if they lose sight of it.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean makes her concentration face for a few long moments, trying to hold the trailer steady, only to briefly lose it as it rips fully free and goes flipping and rolling on its way. Once it's in the air, however, and she's not trying to work against the weird shearing forces of road-vs-wheels-vs-momentum, she exerts herself a bit more to catch it. It still flips over a few times, but it never hits the ground, hovering midair for a moment before settling onto the ground. This probably makes it easier for Monet to bust in, since it won't be flipping like crazy!

"She's not in there," Jean declares a moment later. It's not clear if she gets this information from Monet or gets it herself. But it does change the equation somewhat. <<Good. Stay with them,>> she echoes across to Noriko.

And then a moment later she takes into the air herself. Apparently, the van isn't doing it for her, speed wise, and with the truck making the turn off onto the side road, there's an obvious shortcut angle to take. That much math she does know. Hypotenuse!

"Kitty?" Anyone who wants gets to come along for the flying ride.

Rogue has posed:
The Semi-Truck goes rumbling down that gravel road that leads down toward the train park. It is an industrial train yard, where cargo cars are left in rows and rows of loading tracks. The fence that is meant to keep the place closed is wide open at the moment, with no sign of any workers around the perimeter of the property.

The sun is setting behind clouds to the west tonight, so the evening has that darkening blue'ish grey haze to its coloring, yet there is still plenty of light around the environment of the tall grass lining the gravel road that the large black vehicle is rumbling down with a haze of dust being kicked up in its wake!

Wherever the truck is headed, though, becomes anything but a mystery...

the darkening skies are instantly set alight with the sudden blossoming of bright purple-pink energy! It explodes up in to the air above the train cars, in three different patterns! Three individual bright spheres of swirling energy bloom outward along one set of train tracks, each one partially obscured by unused train cars, hiding whatever is directly in front of the portals behind them.

Whatever is going on, is clearly happening right here in the train yard!

Those who fly the fastest, run the quickest, will come to see a large group of people at the base of these three portals, and many of them are carrying what look to be bodybags through the open portals. The portals themselves are dumping out what looks to be ash, or snow, as whatever they lead to seems to be blowing through the openings in space and time, sending the white particulates out in blizzard-like gusts that fall over the group of men, carrying the bodybags through one by one.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There's a moment where Monet loses control. The purple energy, the portals.. it all strikes a brutal chord in her of familiarity. She remembers well being thrown together, thrown away, abandoned.. Her eyes flicker over with rage until she forces it down, calming along the edge of the link and avoidingsmothering the rest of her team.
    <<Forgive me. But we need to cotnrol the perimeter quickly. Noriko, please disable anyone upright and present and prevent them from coordinating a response. Katherine, as soon as you arrive try and disable the portals. Tabitha, attempt to take out as maoy of tem as possible on your arrival. We need to take them relatively intact. Alison, please assist her in whatever the most effective way you can to maximize disruption. Hudson, please pick off any stragglers. We have to take them out fast and hard and try and take the location intact so we can analyse and backtrack it.>>
    M goes to force herself to focus, even as she goes to send out her visual cues of the entire area to the rest of the team, giving them her best at a real time update as she smothers here motions, her rage, and just acts as a channel.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
<<Hence why I'm on the cab-What?  No goons in the back?>>  No, Noriko didn't know what was in the back of the truck's trailer.  <<No Rogue?>>  Noriko sounds mentally confused.

<<I'll lay low Jean,>> her terse mental reply is unmistakeable, like she's translating more complicated thoughts...a whole slew of them into a simple tldr.  The speedster ducks down and simply sits on the trailer hitch, leaning back against the cab while she holds on with one of her gauntlets.  Her feet dangle like a kindergartener's on crack, swishing back and forth in a casual blur.

Occasionally she lets out a tiny spark to signal to the pursuers as she sees some of them take flight, using it almost like someone would a mirror with the sun.

Noriko mentally relays any details she thinks can't be easily seen from Jean and company's vantage point.

<<Something weird is happening here,>> is about all she can manage to describe the swirling energy construct and such.  Noriko hops off the back of the cab and rushes ahead.  <<This looks like some kind of sci-fi Holocaust operation...>>  Noriko runs right up to the portal dumping out the white substance to see if it will melt against her skin after running through it.

Yes Nori.  Run through unknown white powdery stuff.  She can't really stop at the bodybags without being seen, so this is what she settles for, for once not just causing chaos.

That's when she finally hears Monet over the mental link and slows herself down to catch the salient details.  <<Got it.>>  Noriko gives what she thinks is enough time for the others to be ready before she takes off from the perimeter again into the fray of people, looking to snatch things like earbuds, walkie talkies, cell phones, etc- ooh is that a gun?

Noriko makes another pass to start in on her disabling.  She can't prevent everything, but she's a great precursor to everyone kicking butt, like the tee setting up a ball to smack out of the park.  Sometimes that half moment of confusion she can cause will give the team the advantage.  A few of the people get depantsed and a little shove.  One person gets flicked HARD in the ear, someone else gets an pinky dug into a major nerve running all the way up their dominant arm, and so on.  But where she ends up slowing down is when she tries to unzip all the body bags.

Jimmy Hudson has posed:
    Jimmy can't tell what Alison is saying but she does get a grin and a big thumbs up from the tall guy that looks sorta like Logan. He does spare a glance sidelong toward Kitty and asks her loud enough to perhaps have her hear, but beyond that probably not so far.
    "I have no idea who that person is!" He gestures with a nod to the still-smiling Alison and gives a small wave as he touches a finger to his brow and then points at her.
    Though at that moment a first glimpse of one of those exploding pink surges of energy catches his eye as they hurtle along. He blinks a few times then frowns as he gets ready for when they reach where they're going and can get to grips with things. The sudden rise of images given by Monet over their telepathic comms causes him to focus on building that full mental image before he replies.
    << Roger that. >>

Alison Blaire has posed:
The signal to fly is given and while Ali is not, strictly speaking, a flyer... She's got a particular set of skills (that she just learned about yesterday and has been itching to use. Don't think about it too hard.) She opens the door and rolls out, constructing a light shield around herself to absorb most of that terrible landing, and then actually rockets off in the direction of the train yard on a pair of photonic beams errupting from her clinched fists.

Her landing is as graceful as one might expect for someone who is making shit up as they go. She hits the ground and rolls, then jogs a few steps forward trying to bleed of momentum, and ends up sliding in the dirt. "... ugh..." She groans, pushing herself up with dirt tracks all over her brand new jeans. Palm up and out, waving her fingers at nobody, in the universal sign of gimme a second.

It's a second they don't have.

So instead it's big girl panties time. One deep breath, palms on her thighs, and she stands up.

The bangs that have fallen across her jaw are blown out of her face with a hard puff of breath.

Distraction time.

She slaps her palms together and peels them apart slowly. Between them is an ever expanding ball of light that LOOKS like it's hot. It gives off whip like solar flares of energy that bleeds through her fingers, becoming a big ass over here, look at me beacon for anyone who wants to screw around and find out to aim at.

"Hey! Weird purple portal people! I'm about to blow your asses.. Up, I'm going to blow them up." There's a lot to work on. For ol Dazzler when it comes to being a super hero or whatever.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde gives a nod to Jean, used to being telekinetically lifted by her teammate. Kitty takes on a posture kind of like Superman cruising with his arms at his sides as they approach the trainyard.

"I don't know what I can do to shut it down unless I can find someone holding them open," she says. "But I'll see what I can do. Drop me there, Phoenix," Kitty adds, pointing out the roof of a train nearby.

Once there she crouches stealthily at the edge of the roof, looking down and trying to spot a source for the portals. <<If I can't find one I'm going to go in,>> she sends to the team.

Lockheed flies down to land at her side, ready to move when the Jewish girl does.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Anyone flying gets flown and Tabby's van might not be so fast as them or Nori on the ground but with less people to worry about in the van, Boom-Boom can get some Extra Vroom-vroom on.

That solid bumper and that four wheel drive suspension put to use as she cut and shave off as many curves that migh delay the remaining drive as possible.

Once caught up Tabby pulls up with a skid and her left hand hanging out the drivers side window. Five finger BOOM streams. Like a flamethrower with five barrels she guides them to the center mass of as many thubgs as she can, scorching them as hard as she caves in chests. She's maybe pouring it on and may possibly not care if things get lethal.

Tabby is having flashbacks to when she was last kidnapped. This is further than those guys got and maybe she's echoing some of her own rage and anger through the mind link. <<Anyone in a bag still alive goes in the back of the van. Anyone still alive on the otherside needs pulling back!>> rescue focus seems to be keeping her from just carpet bombing everything into slag and glass.

Once she's out of the van, Boom-Boom adds her second hand, more streams flying and spiralling everywhere. Like a missle swarm from an anime fighter jet.

BOOM!

All the whileshe leaves the stero cranked up with the engine off. All the music blaring out.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean will arrive after M and Noriko, but there are things she can do without needing to do it up close and personal!

She starts reaching out even before she can properly see any of them, grasping at the many minds present, sifting through their stray throughts first, narrowing in. There is a lot there, as there always is. It's the cost of 'going wide,' the reason why Charles is so impressive. The information scales up fast. But this is still relatively small scale, and no challenge for Jean to find what she's looking for. <<Definitely a wide scale operation, but we're mostly dealing with the hired help. I see Rogue.>> Although she echoes 'pings' of their locations back to Noriko and M, showing them thoughts of the men zipping Rogue into one of those bags, a view of their surroundings from their own perspectives as they move, that's more a back-up plan.

Because as soon as she finds their minds? She hits them pretty hard with ye old telepathic off switch. If it works, that's a lot less to worry about. If not? Clobber 'em, girls.

It's narrow, focused on just those two. Because even if she should probably be focused on the rest... there's no denying that Rogue's a bit special to her. Really? It's a small wonder the entire place isn't on fire, already.

<<Its transport, recruitment even, not disposal,>> she relays a moment later, perhaps so that Kitty knows, and that the others can modulate their actions appropriately. Still, admist everything that's happening, she's headed for one location, and one alone, leaving the team to handle the other portals.

Rogue has posed:
Nori is able to peer inside some of the bodybags, peering down at sleeping faces of random people she wouldn't recognize. They seem perfectly content however as they are carried toward the portals that blaze brightly in the dying light of the evening at-hand.

With Nori's antics, and the arriving element of the Semi-Truck, it is no surprise that the men suddenly start shouting out.

"We've been compromized!"

Before the other X-Men are able to arrive, three of the men level their weapons, not at the X-Men, not at the bodybags, but at the train cars... The others all start placing their gas masks on, as the men with the weapons start unloading cannister, after cannister, each one slapping hard against the iron of the train cargo cars!

One by one the cannisters start bursting, sending clouds of pale grey gasseous smoke all around the area, with more going off moments before the light from Dazzler can be seen, followed by the arrival of all the others.

Kitty gets there with her dragon just as the gas starts to cloud over the base of the purple-pink portals! More of that white particulate flows in from the other side of where these strange portals go, and Norko would find out that it is indeed ash, and not snow at all.

Jean's shut down command crosses over the train yard with intensity and many of the men start to fall, save for those 3 with the gas guns. Those 3 remain upright, their guns leveled as they move toward the bag that has Rogue within it. "She's for Indrid!" One of them shouts, stepping over some of their bretheren as one drops his gun, and moves to hoist the bag up over his shoulder, turning then, he starts to rush toward the central portal, with his two counterparts firing more gas cannisters at the incoming enemies!

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The portals are one thing. The individuals and the gas present are another. On top of all the bodies that are clearly unconscious and thus vulnerable. Monet goes to take a deep breath and calculates approach vectors. Letting the detonations from Alison and Tabitha be the distraction to get the attention. Then the first tier of protocol.
    Secure the area. Then engage in tracking and pursuit. One thing at a time. Engagement priorities.
    Monet goes to launch hit and run tactics, not sure how effective the gas is or how it is dispersed. If it could take out Rogue at close range then better to be careful.
    So M goes to fly up, rockets herself towards the nearest edge of the forest, and goes to move to use her strength to start to wrench up a tree trunk. HOlding it in her arms, the girl goes to fly back in and moves to start to try adn use it from a distance as a bludgeon ifs eh can!

Noriko Ashida has posed:
<<Ash coming from portal,>> with a blast of mental disgust for having run through it, a reflex she can't control as well as her body.  Then a stray thought is transmitted, <<I hope I didn't taste people...>>

<<I'll help with bags,>> Noriko reports and then, <<Guns are out,>> just in case someone doesn't know that firearms are in play yet.  The speedster knows she can help the most this way.  Everyone here is capable in a fight, but it's rare to be able to evacuate /while/ the fight is going on and it looks like these bodybag people are just going to lay there and take it...whatever 'it' is.

Noriko runs to go find a tarp she saw and while the chaos begins to unfold and blossom further around her, she merely treats it like she's just picking her way through some woods, ducking this and stepping out of the way of that.  In an instant, she's loaded up her little makeshift sled with bodybags, holding the tarp over her shoulders to drag on a circuitous route, "Because of course there can never be a straight line," through a battlefield.  Sigh.  The people in these bags might end up with some bumps and bruises and maybe a mild concussion at the speed she's going.

Alison Blaire has posed:
Alison hasn't detonated anything.

Not yet...

She's putting all the energy she's collected on the ride over into this ball of light building between her hands. Teeth clinching as it grows and expands, forcing her to move her hands around the rapidly growing sphere just to keep it contained between her palms. Yet still bits of it lick out between her fingers, hungry, and ominously intent.

Until Jean has hit the power switch on the majority of the assailants and there's not but a half a bakers dozen left to keep them from freeing their friend, not to mention all these potential fans in body bags. This is good for record sales right? Saving someone's life from being body-nabbed?

It has to be.

Dazzler turns her head to one side and pulls her palms backwards across her hips with her body angling so her right shoulder is facing towards the gas-gunners and their gas-gunner portals. Her foot slides in the dirt, turning to brace herself.

Then she flings her palms forward, wrist to wrist with her fingers pointing upwards and downwards on both either hand. The light that had been collecting in a ball between them errupts out in a singular beam about the size of a four light-poles lashed together.

She's not aimming for any of them though... She's aimming that massive fuck you beam at the portals. Sweeping her hands in front of her like a light based broadsword, which, and she's no astrophysist or anything, she hopes is going to shut them portals down.

Or baring that, give the people on the other side the best damned light show this side of the Aurora Borealis.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
To Tabby's brain. She was told to make sure that no body got up in their shizzle while the X-Men sizzle. But this might mean that the portals could possibly be two way. She knows way too many teleporters.. Most of them she actually likes and calls family but there's a few she doesn't. And clearly whomever is opening these are on her shit list.

So to make sure nobody comes. <<These people aren't dead?>> she states and gets a little frantic. <<Gimme a sec. Jean, fishing for bodies!>> she calls out while she does something that yeah. Probably isn't wise.

she jumps through a portal herself to start trying to haul body bags back through if she can and put down anyone or thing collecting them. The folks on the New York State side can probably handle forces there.

There's people that need help now. The plasma streams behind spiralling in a circle over and over, Tabby trying her best to use the heat and resulting up drafts to disperse upwards any gas before it can be breathed.

As she finally steps through to start fighting and moving poeople back to New York while she can.

Ash under foot meaning maybe fire and volcanoes? Boom-Boom can handle heat. Luckily if there's a problem. Tabby's power does not require the use of hands which can be used for dragging bodies as quickly as possible. Whether or not she can even ger back through she hasn't even considered. Let alone what she faces on the other side.

This does involve making sure she's not hit by Dazzler's beams or a speeding Surge gathering people at speed. The beam on the portal and Tabby on the other side might have been a really bad idea!

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty focuses in on the men with the gas masks. She draws a few deep breaths rapidly, like a deep diver preparing to hold their breath for an extended period of time. And then she draws in a deep breath and jumps off the train car's roof.

Hitting the ground at a run, Kitty heads straight for the three men who are still on their feet. She gives a little stumble, feigning the gas affecting her, to try to keep them from thinking she's going to make it to them.

But when she does, she just grabs for the nearest man's gas mask, phasing it off of his head. An elbow is thrown to his stomach to help make him suck in a breath and then she's grabbing a second man's mask. A spinning kick is delivered to his head after the mask is phased free.

The third man saw what happened and makes a run for a portal. Kitty catches him from behind, grabbing him by his shirt and removing his mask. She sweeps his leg, dropping him, and pulls the mask on herself.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean is limited to tue mind-fu until she gets closer, but when she does, she quickly points a point on that commentary earlier about the threat of these kind of gas weapons... against the unprepared. Needless to say, in this case, she sees it coming.

As the woman swoops in to the clouded area, any not-yet exploded cannisters, including that final volley fired by the ones running for the portal, get whipped away with sudden jolts of force, sailing off to explode clear of the main freightyard. Meanwhile, the gas already filling the area starts doing strange things, swirling and parting by unseen forces. Around her own body, it shifts over her without effect, stopped by exactly the same kind of technique she uses for going out IN SPACE, sealing herself in a tight sheath of force. Clearing it all would be difficult, but nonethless, in places of immediate interest, wide swathes of it are blown or swept aside by the unseen forces at her command. Ideal gas law, screw off!

It's also kind of hard to see, in all the mess, but Jean doesn't need to. Even if she hasn't stopped them, she can sense the remaining men. When they arrive at that final portal, they find... well, a wall instead. Here, it is not invisible force, but rather a highly energetic yellow-orange, darker at the ominously crackling edges. They won't be able to walk through. Well. They can try. But they really shouldn't. It's a delay, for Jean to catch up with them, which she does, emerging from the swirling gas. Somewhere, unseen amidst those clouds, she's shed her Xaviers School branded hoodie, traded it for the familiar bodysuit. Still green. Barely.

"I'm only going to ask you once, to put her down, and surrender. I really don't think either of us will enjoy what happens if you refuse."

Rogue has posed:
The collective effort to push the gas away from the 3 portals seems to be working, between Tabitha creating a hurrican of plasma, and Jean doing what the Firebird does, the gas starts to be swept away from the portals, and the train cars, sending out amongst the yard in dispersing clouds...

Alison blasts the portals with her light that is quite powerful, sending waves through the portals that are likely very much seen on the other side, and just as Tabitha tries to leap through one, she's sent flying backward! Back toward the train cars, Boom Boom is sent head over heels!

Kitty takes out those gas-gunmen, with Ninja-like precision, but she got a healthy dose of the gas in her lungs, and is likely feeling very drowsey now! Even Lockheed is likely coughing at the nasty stuff wafting around the dragon.

The man with the body bag slung over his shoulder tries to do as Tabi had, but he took is stopped, only he's stopped by Jean's powers. He turns to look at her through his gas mask, and keeps his arm over the bag with the body inside it. It's like he's considering his options, as his faceless masked-covered visage stands there, watching...

The light from Dazzler shines through the portals, until all three suddenly smash together, in to one massive portal that raises up in to the sky higher than it is able to spread wide apart... until two white objects pierce the portal and begin to rip it open even further.

Two massive white, ghostly, claws tear the portal open to give way to a giant figure pushing through, a ghost-like skull that pushes through the portal, causing the purple-pink energy to be pushed outward, like it's trying to break through the energy and enter in to reality... the massive skull, with its empty dead eyes, look out at the train yard, then it begins to screach a deafening roar, ethereal in its sound, wavering in its pitch, the kind of scream that could shatter glass!

The massive ghostly-creature continues to try and push its way out of the portal toward Dazzler's light, as It's left claw leaves the edge of the portal, and jams down through the head of the man holding the body bag over his shoulder. The massive Ghostly Skull creature hooks its claws under the bag, and begins to recoil, retreat, back in to the portal it had torn open! The bag hangs from its massive digit, lifeless and unmoving, while the huge skeletal face continues to shriek like a dying Banshee!

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix can only stare up and over at the macabre menagerie that is appearing. It takes her a moment to recalibrate over to try and discern what is going on. She rapidly decides -against- trying to read the mind over of the thing. That is beyond her ken - she learned her lesson at the elder god murder mystery christmas vacation.
    <<Team, status report. Who is conscious and who needs extraction?>> A quick sharing of information along the mind link as when facedw tih something beyond her experience, she goes to defer to Jean. She's going to dart in then with the gas cloud dispersing thanks to their powers. <<Ensure that all of the hostages are out of the engagement area>> That's something she can do.
    Then seeing the bag that's dangling helplessly from the claw of the thing..
    But it's alive. She senses something from it. And that has Monet going to launch herself towards the bag and the creature at her best speed. She's going to try and quickly get over to the bag, rather than trying to struggle and yank it away she just goes to try and use the edge of the claw to tear enough of it off to let her fly away clear with it.
    Presuming she can, seh's going to rapidly tyr and take them out of the danger zone.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Sound has always been annoying for Noriko, but something so deafening as the skull scream is awful at high speeds if she's traveling /with/ the sound waves.  As for the gas, Noriko simply slaloms through the relief of the large rivulets billowing away from Jean.  One by one, Noriko heaves the body bags up into Tabby's van, not bothering to wait to check for heartbeats.  Nobody has time for that.

Meanwhile, apparently RogueBag is getting ganked by GhostSkullBuddy.  It's the continued shrieking that causes Noriko to fall out of her natural speed to try and let it pass.  "SHUT THAT THING UP!" she rages from behind the van before races back toward the ceaseless sound.

Does a portal have edges?  Noriko thinks as she approaches the tear in space and time.  Eh.

Split moment decisions lead the speedster to leap from the top of a train car at the giant skull with her body sparking like Blanka from Street Fighter.  No shouting, no yelling.  Just flinging herself at..well she realizes maybe too fast a speed.  Again.  Noriko's not Superman...no body of steel here.  But she's launched herself at the skull's forehead, hoping to jump into the nose hole.

Jean Grey has posed:
Screeching giant ghost skull monster thing. Sounds like a challenge!

... and it finds a willing taker, an answering shriek.

"No!" shouts Jean, not as the claw cuts through the man holding the bag -- how close was she to doing the same to him? -- but as it starts to withdraw, taking Rogue with it. At that moment she reaches out, a fiery nimbus springing into life around her, echoing her actions on a larger scale. Suddenly, there's now two monsters on the scene, set to Godzilla it up. The Firebird's blazing talons stretch forward, to tear at and grapple with the ghostly giant, one grasping right at the wrist, trying to seize it's limb there before it can withdraw with it's prize (namely one Rogue-sized bag). Or maybe just slice its arm off at the wrist. She's not exactly being picky, or cautious.

The other claw meets it directly, lashing out against it, or struggling against its other claw, to hold and fend it back. Wherever the claws land, they burn with that same destructive energy, that is not quite true fire, but some kind of cosmic conflagration, ripping matter assunder at its basic level. And at the center of the fiery form stands Jean.

The costume is very much not green any more.

<<GET HER CLEAR>> she answers Monet, but the psychic communication is full of raw emotion, flashing visions of the bag, dangling on that claw, as she tries to hold the creature from pulling back.

Alison Blaire has posed:
There's a saying from a wise man once spoken in the ages of old. Where ancient texts was collected on film and entertainment was gained from this wealth of deep insight.

Yanosh, from Ghostbusters II.

'Oh, but it wooed.'

Technically it shrieked.

An ear splitting sound that could tear apart the heavens itself! Rage on you raging ghost momma. Show us how angry you are that we're separating you from your supper! Only...

It doesn't bother Alison.

No, it doesn't bother her one bit.

She grins as that horrible sound washes over and all around her. Drinking it in... sucking up every decibel. Light is oozing out of her pores, from her eyes, from her open mouth. She's never even begun to imagine just how much energy she could possibly absorb until this moment because she'd never tried.

Rather than continue firing that beam, she lets it die.. and runs straight at the single purple portal. Photonic energy bursts from her fists to launch her up into the air towards the dead eyed face of that ghostly creature trying to spirit away their friend. A falling star going in the oposite direction, until she gets within shouting distance... and swings a punch at white skulls stupid skull face.

Which, itself, probably isn't all that impressive.

Until her fist becomes the catalyst for an actual core meltdown. Releasing all that shrieked energy into one, massive, explosion at the point of impact.

In reality, she's not even sure what this is going to do. If it'll kill her? She really hopes not. She's really been looking forward to this tour, never mind the album itself! But if that's the card she's got to play, there are worse ways to go than punching a fucking skull to death in the season finale of Jean and Rogue better kiss.

Regardless, once all that energy is expelled, she's falling to the ground about as unconscious as a person can get unconscious.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
There's a big feel of panic and terror as the blast sends Tabby flying. It's not the impending pain when she hits a train car. It's the people she just failed to save on the other side.

There is an attempt to arrest the impact by using a blast of her plasma to send her back but it just gets her hitting the ground in the other dirction and skidding on her back to stare up at the ghostly monster.

<<That... I miss Illyana. Really!>> she says and is absolutely truthful. <<So magic portals with a C!>> she says and charges a much, much larger blast. Her body crackling with all that psionically controled bioelectrity that she makes all by herself.

BOOM!

She lets off a very hefty and loud stream of plasma. Flying up and aiming right for the ghostly entity's glowing skull. The bag that seems to be causing it distress gets a hmm. <<Think we found our Belle? Jean, catch!>> she calls out telepathically before cutting herself off from the link. Monet taking care of that just as she made the suggestion.

This is so Boom-Boom can concentrate all that power into knocking the thing back into the realm it came from. Tabby pushing as much into the plasma and adding as much a psionic attack into it.

She's not on Jean's level but she's no slouch on throwing that ionised energy and with no one squishy in the way.

Well Jean going extra Phoenix is and Alison, but Marvel Girl eats suns as comfort food and Tabby always jokes about how she ignites them. And Heat and BOOM is no problem when Dazzler has a full volume behind her. If anything she's probably powering both of them up along with her own blast hitting the entity.

Rogue has posed:
Whenever two worlds collide like this, there is always the effect of each world having to learn more about one another. In this instance, the Skull Walker wasn't prepared for what lay on the other side of the portal that it was tearing open... It couldn't possibly know that such power was waiting for it, could it?

Who knows. Who the Hell even knows what the Skull Walker thing even is!

The creature does, however, thrash as Noriko and Alison both get within range of its face, its long ghostly-whisps of hair whipping around its face, as its dagger-like arms are grabbed by the power that Jean brings to the battlefield, and it starts to quiver, starts to quake as it roars once more, likely only feeding some of its attackers with more power!

Monet manages to sweep that torn bodybag away from the ghostly claw, having freedom to take it where she wishes, just as Tabi's plasma assault adds to the chaos coming from that last, massive, portal opening!

The beastly monster is continuing to shake, quiver, and quake more vilently with every second that it tries to fight back against the onslaught of attacks, its teeth snapping at Alison, at Noriko and just as it tries to thrust itself out of the portal again, its entire body bursts in to white ash that flows all around the train yard, covering the brave women who continue to fight for their friend, and the perception of those others that were being taken in to the portal's embrace...

The ghostly Skull vanishes in to a plume of ash, and the portal then begins to quiver itself, throbbing, pulsing, until it snaps shut, closed and gone, leaving ash flowing in the evening winds, and nothing more but one long gash of white grass in its wake, fifty yards long, the white grass just gently waves, dances, in the wind that the ash is carried across...

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix goes to head in to land with the figure in the bag, moving to quickly check over them to make sure that htey're alive. Moving to peel away the edges covered up over them.. Revealing a face that is not Rogue. Not Rogue at all.
    Monet's expression remains it's normal stoick blankness. <<It is not Anna. Noriko, please check /every/ single bagged individual present as efficiently as you can>> The information is relayed up and over to Jean as well as Monet goes to hover in place, ready to provide backup or to start to sweep the area herself. The monster seems to have been banished, even as the largest portal itself seems to vanish. Is Rogue amongst the bodies? Were they too late to save their friend?
    Presuming there are no other threats, Monet is going to rapidly move to aid in checking over those unconscious and present, keeping her own thoughts to herself.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko finds that she misses the nose.  "Impossible!" she actually says out loud to no one as the head pulls back and she has to smack onto the ground and try to do one of those rolls she saw on the parkour videos but has never really had to try...nor at this velocity.

The speedster smacks and rolls, hitting some kind of bone and then digs her heel down into the ground to use her momentum to get back up like some kind of Willy Wonka on crack...only way more scuffed up.  Blood rushes down the side of her head at a disturbing rate, kind of pooling up at the source.  Noriko gives a shake of her head like a dog, slinging some off in a spray.  <<I'm okay,>> she reports, already bounding away, only to get ashed by the big Skull Walker going POOF.

<<On it.>>  Nori's thoughts come quickly on the mental connection, especially during battle when she's switching up her velocity rapidly, though those used to it have no problem.  She dead reverses her direction, absorbing massive forces and rebounding with ease toward where she's stashed the bodybagged people.

ZIP!  "Not you."  ZIP!  "Ugh," someone sweats a lot.  ZIP!  The speedster starts peeling the bodybags like bananas.

Alison Blaire has posed:
Alison hits the ground hard and bounces because that was a whole lot more energy than she's ever used in the entirety of her life at Xavier's. Her head is swimming as she pushes up onto her hands and knees. She'd be staring down at the ground if her eyes weren't closed and her skull weren't pounding. It feels like someone took an ice pick, put it against her temple, and then bashed it with a mallet.

Also she can't hear anything.

Which is disconcerting..

Until it slowly starts to fade back in with some wah waaah wahwahwah... into actual words. A bit of slimy drool hangs from her bottom lip from the dry heaves she hadn't even realized she was having.

She takes one more breath, makes one more attempt to stand up, and then just collapses over on her side where she pulls her knees up and curls into the fetal position. It doesn't make her head hurt any less, but it doesn't make it worse either.

So that's a plus.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
When the creature is blasted to literal ash and then the portal along with it Tabby finally lets off her stream. Good thing as she clearly is at her limit and she's clearly exhausted.

Covered in dust and thankfully she's wearing her glasses still, she doesn't get any in her eyes. There is some dusting off of her face so she looks less like she had a fun night at the Hellfire Club.

She feels it, the landing after being thrown hack hard, BOOM bounced and then skidding in the dirt left a Tabby wide furrow that, when she gets up with leave one side of her body pale white with ash, and the other dark with dirt from the ground itself.

<<Guys, I don't think I can carry so many people in the van.>> she points out. She did not anticipate this many people taken to be fed to the entity. There is an attempt to maybe force Rogue to make herself known if she is among the people here.

<<He's got Jeepers! Noo!>> she tries to mix voice and telepathy to see if a possible Belle is roused. <<If she's on the other side?>> she's back to terrified again.

<<Uhhm we may have to call Illyana on this one if this is some mystic crap? Shoulda jumped through!>> regrets of what she couldn't do as much for those already on the other side of the now closed portals. Picking herself up after a couple falls starts Tabby heads for the van and leans against the open side door.

Jean Grey has posed:
The fiery mantle lasts just as long as the battle does. It burns brighter and brighter as the skull-creature fights, almost as if angered by the simple premise that something should dare -resist- it. Whatever this thing is, whatever corner of the world it hails from, the Phoenix does not fear it. The Phoenix knows it will witness it's foe's end, and perhaps watch, in some later epoch, as it is born again. The fact that Tabitha is willing to pour fuel on that fire? Perhaps it's foolish. Perhaps she is doing more good than she realizes, if not in the way she thinks.

All the same, the conflagration continues to grow, vast wings spreading out behind them, enshrouding its would-be victim.... right up to the point that the creature bursts wholly to dust. In that instant, there is an echoing schreech of victory, not actually a sonic outburst like those which fueled Alison's attack, but a purely psychic scream. And then the fires rather promptly withdraw, sucked inward into the locus of the woman at their center.

She turns and immediately looks around, searching out Monet.

"What? No, no, nononono..."

She watches as Noriko flashes around, and everyone can feel the building, rising dread as it radiates out from her, her own emotions echoed like someone had suddenly put her mind on speaker mode. Most of that emotional 'tone' is still clearly Jean, and yet... there's another layer to it, slightly different, and more and more, it starts to 'break in.' <<Where is she? WHERE ARE YOU?>> <<Marie?!>> <<We remember->> <<Rogue! Rogue?!>> <<She came for the host>> <<Not here, Noriko's not going to->> <<Needs her, an anchor.... a source of strength.>>

Perhaps Jean knows the answer before she's willing to admit it. But from looking around in panic, there's a brief flash in her eyes, and she turns, walking not for one of the body bags, but for one of the many fallen. She drops down, landing on them with her knees, and reaches those gold-gloved hands to grab them by the collar, hoisting them toward her face. Still Jean's face, but... somehow terrifying. "Where were you taking them? Return her!" And then, shaking them, "Who is Indrid? Where have they gone? TELL ME!"

It's a formality, the demand, because in the same moment? That poor person has their mind utterly torn open in search of the answer.

Rogue has posed:
The evening sky is getting darker, the clouds in the sky are getting thicker as a late night storm front is headed in from the west.

The ash falls all around the train yard now, having burst out in a huge radius around the property, making the place look as though its being caked in a light snow.

The people in the body bags are not yet awake, but there is some motion here and there, as those who lay about the yard are starting to slowly regain their conscious thoughts...

Across the yard, 'behind' where the portals had been, several train cars rest quietly amongst the dusting of ash flowing around the area. One train car door clicks, and starts to get pushed ajar. It pushes itself open enough for a figure to step out, a pointed leather cowboy boot stepping out of the car, and dropping down to the gravel covered ground. The figure emerges from the car, his greying bearded face looking around at the falling ash, as his greying hair flutters in the wind. Dressed in a denim jacket, a flannel shirt, and jeans, the man is holding Rogue in his arms. He finally rests his eyes on the people across the way, a few tracks over, and starts to walk toward them, Rogue's white hair swaying in the wind, the ash that matches its hue, as the man carrying her just keeps his eyes on the X-Men who'd come to save Anna-Marie.

She rests in his arms, peacefully asleep while he carries her toward her friends.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
And as Jean is going to seemingly rend the man's mind apart, Monet St. Croix watches over there in sheer.. Awe. Terror? Just at seeing the raw amount of power and skill from the Phoenix that's so displayed by Jean. But as the man's mind goes to start to be rended..
    She rushes towards her, "Ms Grey! Stop! Please! This isn't right!" She goes to try and fly over towards Jean as best she can. Confused. Hesitant.
    The man most assuredly deserved it. He's scum. HE was taking mutants, humans, whomever the helpless victims were.. To be reduced to ash. Is that what that is? She's scared. The man deserves it. Definitely. Deserved it. Got it. They had every right to. Jean had every right to.
    She stalls, falters. "Ms. Grey, please stop. There's nothing left. Please." She's scared.
    But the other woman is her friend and her teacher. That means she needs to stay.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko just keeps peeling the people out of the bodybags.  She's working at a slower and slower pace but doesn't realize it.  It's nothing terribly noticeable though.  She's too busy with this to notice Jean going ham on some guy's mind.  It's Monet's yelling that catches her attention.  And she doesn't lift a finger to stop Jean.

Right about when she spots Rogue is when all those bumps and bruises sprout forth ever so quickly.  She gets up stiffly from the ground and shuffles closer to the others after having peeled her last bodybagbanana.  Squinting through the winter wonderland of death, coughing up a storm.  How much ash did she inhale?  Is she inhaling?  Noriko pulls up the front of her shirt to try and cover her mouth and nose.

"Is she okay?!  Who the fuck are you?!"  Noriko squints through some blood that has trickled down into her eyes and the ashy paste it has made.

Alison Blaire has posed:
Well that's humbling.

To be fair, Alison wasn't hamming it up for attention, even though that is absolutely something she's capable of, but if she were? The fact nobody even went to check on her would hit her right in the ego. Like right in the deepest recesses of her feels. It's cool, she's not bitter.

There might be songs about it.

But she's not bitter...

"I'm fine..." She says to nobody. Voice sounding far away and muffled to her own ears as she flops over on her back and stares up at the sky. One hand lays across her tattered shirt and her knee pokes out of her torn jeans, but truly, this is all okay.

This is okay.

She's all covered in ash and it kind of reminds her of her first release party, but she gets the feeling she probably shouldn't put any of this up her nose. One hand scoops up a handful of ash and lets it sprinkle from the bottom of her fist. "This party sucks.." She murmurs, rolling over to push herself up on wobbly legs to start limping back towards the Van. "I need a bubble bath and a glass of wine, stat." Rogue is safe.

People are safe.

This is fine.

There's going to be a song.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tired and exhausted. Tabby is probably going to have the mother of hangovers and that psionic screach in her brain ears is not helping her at least.

The shredding of the man's nugget not at all a worry for the blonde exploder. She's sweeping her gaze over the train yard. Some of those thugs with smoke wisping off them her doing.

With a frown and a squint as she struggles against her own aches and pains, physically and psychicly she turns to follow everyone's gaze to the man carrying rogue while Monet pleads for Phoenix to chill.

Picking herself up from leaning against the van, she looks over at Rogue being carried.

What little psionic energy she has being more gentke in probing his thoughts to make sure he's really just another victim bagged up but just woke up as Nori interrogates. "M, Phoenix. I think like, we can relax. a little" she yells at the pair.

"Heyeyyy Dazzler. We should go find Kitty. She's gonna hate she slept though this. Maybe we can snag some of the gas and party when we get home." she suggests and pushes off to go and find the erstwhile girl. "Hey Lock? Where she at?" she yells and tries to find the damn alien dragon probably watching over her.

Tabby isn't sure the guy could fly his human pet home. Safe to check though.

Jean Grey has posed:
Eventually, Jean lets her captive go. The figure slumps to the ground, eyes open and vacant, mouth slightly slack and drooling. A hired goon, they offer no clarity on these strange activites, and certainly not on Rogue's fate. She feels Monet behind her, slowly stands and turns to face her...

And the terrible anger is gone, replaced with naked, numb despair. M can feel it, too, not just see it worn on her features, as the woman vascilates across emotional extremes. "He didn't know where they've taken her, how are we going to-" Her voice is actually kind of pitiful, small and alone.

For a moment she stands there, amidst all the ash and dust. A bleak scene, yet one of a certain grim familiarity. The echoes that are not Jean's are faint now, whisper quiet, and yet for a moment... they seem quite accepting of the scene.

<<-perhaps there is nothing, nothing more here for her->>

Jean looks around, sees the others stirring around her. There is a momentary flash of relief, even if it is small and hollow. There ARE many things that matter to her...

...and yet they may all feel just a touch overshadowed when Noriko's voice hits her, and she turns to see the figure, with Rogue's body supported in his arms.

Suddenly, all the maelstrom is quiet, as she very much forgets whatever M was telling her, turning to break into an all-out run across the bleak trainyard toward this unknown savior, stumbling here and there, before after a few steps she simply leaves the Earth, gliding toward them. Despite it all, despite the intensity of her anger, she doesn't show any of Noriko's suspicion toward the figure, as if something recognizes him instantly as a friend, stopping right in front of him, reaching for the woman in his arms, touching here and there as if looking for injuries.

"Is she OK? Please tell me she's alright, if she's not, I can help her, save her, I've done it before-" ZOMBIE ROGUE! "Marie? Marie? Are you alright?" she's leaning in, brushes away a lock of off-color hair, and touches her face with those still gold-wrapped fingers. Until at last she can finally find some sense of the woman 'inside,' a heartbeat, a flicker of her slumbering mind. And there she smiles, before looking up to the man holding her. "We- I, I've seen you somewhere, before."

Rogue has posed:
Certainly if Rogue had known that her friends had rushed to her aid like this, she would be hugging each one of them. She'd be treating them to drinks, to food, to whatever she could do to show them she was happy to have such friends.

But at the moment, she's just as so, a vulnerable woman in a stranger's arms.

With the aftermath of the situation unfolding before them all, the man carrying Rogue, stops beside the last train track pathway, and his eyes look to Noriko, before they sweep over to Jean who flies toward he and Rogue.

His aged expression is kind, but stern at the moment, like he's happy about the outcome, but not pleased about all of it as a whole. He eyes the others beyond Jean and Noriko, before he looks to the Headmistress herself when she speaks of recognizing him. He nods a single time to her. "Yeah... you do." He speaks in a calm, smooth voice.

"Wh-what's going on?" Comes Rogue's voice, as she starts to wake up in the man's arms. She opens her eyes and looks around at the train yard, at the man, then over at Jean.

"Hello, Pumpkin." The aging man says down to Rogue, showing a soft smile for her, before he looks up to Jean, then to Noriko, and back again. "My name is Owen. I'm her father."

Across the train yard, the others who had been knocked out for various reasons, begin to wake up, some quicker than others. There's going to be a lot to take care of here, as there will be many questions, not all of which the X-Men can even answer...

And in the distance, to the west, a rumble of approaching thunder sounds out, rolling across the ash covered landscape.