13750/Mutant Libersion Makes No Friends of Humanity

Mutant Libersion Makes No Friends of Humanity
Date of Scene:	09 January 2023
Location:	Friends of Humanity Office
Synopsis:	The Mutant Liberation Front attacks the Friends of Humanity. The two groups have enough hate and murder on both sides that they can't be told apart. Some things are universal about humanity.
Cast of Characters:	Monet St. Croix, Tommy Shepherd, Rachel Summers, Franklin Richards, Bunny Macleod, Mary Bromfield, Victor Creed, Roberto da Costa, Gabby Kinney, Grant Ward

---

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The Mutant Liberation Front were not particularly subtle when it came to things. A half hour ago, an announcement had been put out on local broadcast stations that they would be going to a nearby Friends of Humanity center in New York.. And kill every single last person there.
    The Friends of Humanity had responded minutes later something along the lines of 'they would kill every mutie scum who came near'.
    And in this shared sense of brutality, what each side would call the other freaks and terrorists that needed to be obliterated would be digging in.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Sometimes your luck just runs bad, out of nowhere. You can be having a great day, high efficencies on your delivery orders, knocking them out left and right across New York, and then it comes time to wrap up for the day and go meet someone for a date-night-dinner-thing at a restaurant recommended to you by a regular delivery client that you thought respected you, only to find out the place is both A. a total rat-infested garbage dump, and B. right across the street from a Friends of Humanity center.

    And it's not like Tommy hides that he's a mutant. You can't get as many deliveries done a day without some kind of power, and he zips around pretty casually. What does he have to hide?

    Well, he's here now, eyes roving the street nervously for any sign of his previously mentioned date. Mostly to sweep her up and get her the hell out of here. Tommy checks his phone again for any texts from Bunny, before worriedly beginning to hug the buildings as he makes his way along the street, trying to make it obvious he's not here to be part of the mob.

Rachel Summers has posed:
Rachel, being Rachel, had heard inklings about the MLF pulling some shenanigans. She doesn't necessarily disagree with their desires, but she also can't let them mass murder baselines. It's not a good look.

She lights atop a nearby building, looking down at the impending chaos with a frown. She's dressed more like the Hound she used to be. Red leather and body armor with spikes on the shoulders and upper arms and a long red leather coat. With the tattoos and her surly expression, she's probably pretty terrifying, and that's before the Psychic Bullshit begins.

For the moment, she's just standing there, tails of her coat fluttering in the breeze as she considers what to do.

Franklin Richards has posed:
Franklin appears outside on the sidwalk coming into visual sight as if were wrapped over him then falling away. He doesn't seem to realise that the call went out or its response as he is just lost in thought. "I don't get it... How can I not understand... what am I missing." he just continues to walk forward toward the center. He knew she was deep into that spy stuff, and to him it was all just a waste, but he had come up with a valid plan to clean up that mess.

Dressed head to toe in Fantastic Four gear is Franklin Richards, Black and blue hat with the four on it, Its clobberin time shirt with Ben's face on it, and finally the black and blue pants with the four on the side. He had no idea what he was walking into as he was just walking to think out his plan, as well as the confusing confersation with a mercenary.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Bunny had been running a bit late after running into an angry group around the metro seeming pretty agitated. She had tucked her bright pink hair up under her brown MACLEOD MESSENGER SERVICE cap and put herself between the group and some of the other passengers on the subway to make sure they weren't about to get hit with anything, her feet going to-and-fro on her skates in nervousness as she gets off at the same stop, intent on grabbing her dinner date and either getting the heck outta there or sticking around to help with crowd control as she takes out her phone, with its happy dancing rainbow unicorn-bunny case, and flicks through social media when...

    Oh. That's bad.

    >Coming up from subway. Tailing angry huggles. Try not to let any see you speed around. What's your 20?

Mary Bromfield has posed:
The news had been grim, and it had set Mary's teeth on edge. She was not a mutant, and she was not even sure really who she knew who /was/ a mutant, but she was sure that some of the heroes that she had fought with probably were. And she was NOT happy about what was going down.

But her visit to the scene was not a case of Mary Marvel, magical super hero, showing up. It was Mary Bromfield, journalist, coming to cover the situation. She hoped, desperately, that it would remain peaceful, and give her a chance to do some hard hitting writing about it. So she had arrived dressed professionally - a white silk blouse, a knee length pleated black skirt, and shoes with arguably sensible heels. She had not quite perfected the Lois Lane look yet, but she was trying!

Victor Creed has posed:
The Mutant Liberation Front is going to visit the Friends of Humanity. How quaint.

Victor Creed found himself among the crowd of spectators that had athered. Why it was that people were drawn to what were surely about to be train wrecks never quite made sense to him. But for the moment, he was waiting patiently for the chaos he knew was coming, wearing a dark brown trenchcoat, hands in his pockets, lapels turned up. Tototally inconspicous, unless someone got close enough to notice his tremendous height or his fabulous mane of blonde hair. Or the fangs. The fangs might attract attention.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto da Costa rolls up in a sleep black SUV followed by a second. The men who fall out of the second move in unison, guns in a low ready postion. Their leader comes up to speak to Roberto as do the other three people in suits. He nods to the man in tactical fatigues, "Keep back, I don't want anyone caught in the crossfire, do you best to keep this from spreading." He tilts his head to the other three, and nods to the blue skinned girl with antlers, "Keep people as calm as you can, do your best we need to get them out." He looks towards the other two, you two are on exfil, we need every civilian mutant or otherwise out of harm's way. Roberto nods to first one and then the other, "Keep them moving, Keep them safe. We're not the X-Men, protect each other get out if you get in trouble."

     Then Roberto walks towards the entranched fighters. he's holding a suitcase in one hand and a megaphone, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Roberto DaCosta, you should have heard of me, one way or the other. I am willing to offer anyone who puts down their weapons and takes the day off $10,000 dollars, in cash. Now, let's make this an easy day for law enforcement. Shall we?"

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There are dozens of mutants that are forming a perimeter around the place. With a wide array of powers. Eevn as various heroes show up and assemble, or observe.. They face an office building that is quickly being turned into a small fortress as the front of it is barricaded, guards inside are braxcing down.. And for the mutants coming in outside, howling and threatening over..
    "KILL THE FLATSCANS!" Shrieks from one end go out.
    "SLAUGHTER THE MUTIES!"
    From one side fly out bullets, explosives.. From the other blasts of energy, flames, and all sorts of powers.

Franklin Richards has posed:
Franklin is walking just thinking when he hears something wierd that breaks him out of his trance. He thinks that its chanting, as he looked up quickly he had to sigh, and frown to himself as he had done it again. "Slaughter the Mutties!" is yelled all around him, though not at him yet. He has somehow passed the line, and walked right into the middle of the anti-mutant croud and that is where he is when it all kicks off. Of course he wasn't sure who did it first as he had just started trying to figure where to go from this spot.

So as people flee, or charge into the fight Franklin would be there standing in the open sighing with a hand on his face he must really look up more often this is starting to get bad.

Thankfully shields was one of his powers as right now he just used it for himself. As well as lot of the first wave would be further towards the front, but now he had to decide what to do. Looking at one of the anti-mutant wearing normal human in cover he yelled over.. "Mondays right?"

Mary Bromfield has posed:
    Aaaaaand the fighting had already started. So much for the attepts at de-escalation. Mary makes a few notes on her pad as people start rushing and running, some running towards the fight, some away the fight. She bites her lip as she casts a glance around, wondering what she should do. She is not familiar enough with the politics to wade in, certainly, and she is not even sure if, with so much firepower getting thrown around, she can even help.

    And so she decides that it is Mary Bromfield who will observe and report on this incident. There are enough powered folks flying around and making things explode. She will remain among the people. And maybe she can do some good there.

Victor Creed has posed:
Oh, he was content to stay amount the crowd and watch what was no doubt going to be a mess unfold before him. But there is a look of sheer amusement on Victor Creed's face as Roberto walks in offering to throw money around to buy off aggression. He pushes his way through the crowd and starts to approach the wealthy industrialist and X-Man, and drops his arms behind him as he gets closer, letting the trenchcoat fall to the ground exposing the tall mutant with his telltale tufts of yellow fur and hair accompanying his towering size. It was not a particularly expensive coat, and $10,000 would buy a lot of more of them.

    "I'm afraid I can't drop my weapons, but..." He gives Roberto a fanged grin as he holds out his hands, razor sharp claws at the ends of his fingers. Expectantly.

    And paying little attention to the melee that breaks out behind him.

Rachel Summers has posed:
Rachel frowns as the fighting begins. She would rather not assault either group. Okay, that's a lie. She really wouldn't shed too many tears over the FOH, but the MLF are not really behaving well at this juncture. She sighs and does something for the good of everyone, at least until they start shooting her.

She extends one hand and concentrates, her body wreathed in a psionic aura of 'flame' as she plants a psionic forcefield between the two groups. It's pretty big, but it can be circumnavigated. If it's hit hard enough, it'll collapse, too. The groups, fighting as they are, probably can manage in a few moment, but she's buying time.

<You all really should stop. No one will walk away a winner today, no matter which side beats the other. Everyone should just go home and hug their families.>

This is broadcast to everyone present, right into their heads. Xavier's folks will know who it is.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Oh shit. Ooooh shit. So much for date night. The route to the place had been going past a certain abandoned School for Wayward Girls when Gabby got the 411 on what was going on. While she could hop in a fight and help protect people without gear, she would do decidedly better WITH gear. The short stop at the bar to get the X-Force gear she stashed there was considered a necessary loss of time.

Which is why the black and white suited Honey Badger shows up once the worst is already starting out. Leaping from the rooftop down into the fray she lands smack dab on the back of someone brandishing a baseball bat. "Won't be needing that," she assures. With a quick snag of it, it's tossed into the air and cleaved right in half with one suddenly protruding claw to leave a very un-useful two halves of a bat.

Before anyone near her can react further she drops her hand to pull a small pepper spray from her belt to FSSSST into the face of a few grabby militants beside her.

"T-Bae! B-Hon! Get the hell OUT!"

They weren't fighters. She could survive whatever and try to deflect the worst of what might come. But them? That was what had her worried.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto da Costa sighs as the chaos erupts, shaking his head, "What sort of fanatic act against their own best interest?" He looks up at the tall easily recognizable mutant and nods, "See, it's a reasonable offer. We meet in the most unlikely of places, you and I. Let me revise it for you, 50K no one killed by your hand. That good?" Roberto opens the suitcase and pulls out five rolls of 100 hundred hundred dollar bills.

    The shield that snaps up around him, shimmers in the air as the kinetic impacts bounce off and Berto shifts to vanta black as flame engulfs him, both he and the suitcase making it through unscathed. Roberto taps his ear, "Thanks for the assist Bulwark." He shakes his head, and taps his ear again, "This of course means war.", "Yeah, that did not work, well, we had one taker. I know you said so, it's not important who. Plan B, now, take their social media presence, buy any and all web presence and I want to own this building within the hour."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    What a day to be responsible and not spend much time on the socials. Tommy will never do that again, that's for damn sure. He glances at his phone again, brow furrowing at the mention of his speed in Bunny's text, but obligingly keeps himself to regular human speed texting, not... you know, Speed texting.

> i'm at the corner
> headed your way
> there's a huge mob up here
> holy shit i think there's going to be a fight
> bunny turn around they have guns

    Okay, maybe by the second or third rapid-fire text his thumbs are moving a toooouch faster than should be possible, but he's also ducked down behind a trash can to hide himself. You know, from the guns.

    He doesn't move to intervene. A hero Tommy is not, not in this timeline at least. Mostly he just wants to avoid having any extra holes put in him (without his consent). Until he hears a voice calling out to him, and he pops his head out. "GA--," then he sees the uniform, and the name dies in his throat because Tommy has some respect for secret identities (even if Gabby herself doesn't maintain one).

    Instead, he does a mad dash at superspeed from trashcan to newspaper stand, trying to stay behind cover as he makes his way towards the subway exit and Bunny.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
THere's a blast of flame over at Franklin from one of the mutants. Then a series of bullets that shoot at him from someone in the side of the Friends of Humanity. The bullets would ping off of his shield, ricocheting. That has more screaming and threats. He's someone important, but no one really seems to care.
    Rachel's request, likewise, is met with taunts from both sides and weapons fire - amutant throwing a series of daggers over at her that were made of glowing energy.
    Mary has a position within the crowd of people who are watching it. There's no remote police cordon here or thing to keep them away. As the melee goes full rush, blasts are going offhand into the crowd and very much putting them at risk of injury or death.
    Creed gets to have his moment to grin even as Honey Badger goes into the game of crowd control and starts taking some people down. She's met over with someone going to charge at her. It's a mutant over with a fist shifting on his shoulder over into a large hammer, him trying to strike her in the back as she drops several people with minimal harm!
    As Roberto's shield goes to flare up, someone from the Friends of Humanity calls out, "Mutant filth! Kill him!" Despite teh riches being offered.. Fanatics were in it for something else. There goes a grenade arching through the air. There goes a molotov over from someone on the mutant side aimed over at the front of the building.
    Tommy's approach is not noticed by anyone. He has complete free reign and ease to get from one place to another without notice.
    It's a full on melee of chaos now with dozens of people on both sides going to totally murder one another!

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    >YEP THEY HAVE GUNS

    Tommy might not be a hero. Bunny?

    Eh. Split on if she's heroic or just dumb. She's in her skates and she's transferred from her brown hat to her colorful winged helmet, her eyes narrowed as she skates along, swept up in the onrush of attacking mutants, trying not to be bounced around like a pinball as she goes, giving a soft squeak as someone's elbow spike bonks on her helmet, and then ducking down, she spots an opening and takes it, speeding around, coming in low, and as the bullets start to fly she does what she can, the colorful teen in the bright, rainbow-colored skirt gets a gasoline quality to her as she takes an improvised escrima stick and knee-whacks everyone in front of her as she skates by "Get down get down get down!" she barks in her squeaky voice.

Rachel Summers has posed:
Of course they wouldn't listen. She knew it. She had to try anyway. She couldn't live with herself if she didn't. The energy blades come for her, and the forcefield at ground level falls away as her concentration focuses on herself again. The projectiles stop a few inches from her body before she simply wills them to fall away.

Rachel frowns.

She steps towards the edge of the roof and begins to focus her power, drawing on it heavily. She erupts in a bird shaped aura of 'flame', a lightshow, nothing more, but even the flatscans can start to feel the buildup of psychic pressure.

<If anyone can spare it, watch my back. I'm going to try and Neo this.>

That is directed at Roberto and Gabby, mostly. Maybe Bunny and Tommy can hear it too, if they're lucky. Victor is -right out-.

Franklin Richards has posed:
Franklin is standing as bullets wiz, and ping of his shield though he seems to be okay as just the wave of fire comes down on his head. As the flames lighten Franklins hat is burned away though othen then maybe some char on him he seems to be okay. He looks over to where the flames came at him the bullets still thump thump thump around him falling to the ground flat as if impacting something to solid to pierce. Franklin just looks at the mutant the path between them clear as the flames had burned away and shakes his head pointing at them as their ams falls down at their side they seem to be struggling against something. As they lift just a few inches off the ground they are pulled until they are just a foot away.

Franklin smiles as now both of them are being shot at though his shield stoping them for now. Since the flame mutant had been pulled over here the two now surrounded by anti-mutant shooting despite seeing what happened thinking maybe this one. Franklin speaks to him finally. "Friend, this is not the place for you. I know you hate, but this is not your purpose." he waves a hand around at the fighting and now the shield that poped up blocking the way out. "My name is Franklin Richards." he pauses to hear his then continues, "Listen to me or do not that is your choice... But if you, and you particular throw flames at me again. I will send you to the moon."

With this he releases the person from his grip though he still helps to provide him cover.. "Go.. that way." and points to the exit giving them another chance though a final one.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto da Costa sighs, picking off the grenade first, then the molotov cocktail, then moving on to a rock, a brick and a dagger. He takes them out with the kind of ease only Scott's advanced targeting classes can inspire. He sighs, and leaps into the air, going mobile as Bulwark drops the force shield, he sweeps around and lays down cover for Rachel using a wider spread of blasts to pin down ranged combatants and keep melee players in her space off balance.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
In spite of her concern for a few in particular here, Gabby aka the Honey Badger was moving as if she were having the time of her life. Kicks, punches, disarming a few. Slicing through weapons and occasionally dealing with a stray mutant ability she was caught in the cross-fire of. It didn't much matter to her--she's leaving a sizeable pile of people groaning and otherwise not fighting.

Not dying, either. She was skilled enough to be able deal with an unorganized crowd of not-fighters in a non-lethal way.

That doesn't mean she can dodge bullets though even with being a bit faster in her reaction times than a normal human. A few slugs slam into her, throwing her off balance before she can recover. Body armor helped protect her from the worst. Her healing factor from worse than that. But there's still times when an arm doesn't work quite right, or her balance is kicked off kilter.

Hearing the mental request from Rachel she gives a quick thumbs-up in the air acknowledging it. Much as someone can see her arm held up in this crowd. Height was NOT her strong point.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Crouched where he is, Tommy is mostly missing out on the theatrics of the fight. Which is a shame, as there are certainly some big names when it comes to mutant power here... and he doesn't really know any of them. Except one certain Honey Badger, out there in the uniform Tommy doesn't recognize. If he has faith in anyone surviving this mess, though, it's her, so he abides by her command to GTFO by GTFOing.

    It takes a few more hops, skips, and jumps (all at nearing mach 1) but Tommy does indeed make it to the subway entrance, scrambling down the steps to look this way and that, trying to find a certain pink-haired lapine-named girl. No luck. It's an unlucky evening all around, and he slinks back up the steps halfway to peek over the ground's edge. "Holy *shit* Bunny what are you doing!"

    Speaking of luck, he's still (un)lucky enough that yes, he does hear Rachel's psychic voice inside his head. And, unused to this sort of thing, Tommy falls flat on his ass and reaches up to put both hands over his ears while screaming "WTF!"

    But, you know, not the initials.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
    As Mary Marvel, she would be perfectly capable of handling herself in such a situation. She could take the pushing and shoving and not budge. She could make her way through the crowd with ease. She would fly above the crowd. She would probably even have the wisdom to avoid this situation.

    But unfortunately, she is Mary Bromfield right now, and Mary Bromfield cannot became Mary Marvel without summoning forth a bolt of lightning. And in a press of humanity, a bolt of lightning would do far more harm than the pushing and shoving. Well, maybe.

    Mary abandons the idea of trying to keep a focus on the scene at one, shoving her pad into her satchel, and focuses instead of just trying to stay upright as the crowd turns into a near stampede. She looks around frantically to try to find her way to the edge of the crowd, where she can slip away. She does not need /that/ much clearance from other people. Just a little bit. If only she could get away...

Victor Creed has posed:
The grin on Victor's face broadens as Roberto ups the ante. He takes the cash and pockets it quickly. "Don't kill anyone, got it." he says with the sort of grin that indicates he will do his level best to comply with that very specific directive. "Not my fault if some of those losers maim themselves for life on my claws, though." Seeing that Roberto is in fine enough shape with his forcefield, Victor turns and starts loping off into the fray. There will be blood spilled today, to be sure.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Bunny gets the message, and she comes to the cover of a parked car, crouching down as she looks up and sees the aura, flaming, in the shape of a bird, and her eyes go wide.

    "... uh... that... is... *sofreakingcool*...." she whispers quietly before she catches sight of a familiar also-short fighter, and sshe skates on in, the gasoline-puddle quality to her skin showing as she lights up a shield to stop some incoming fire and skids in to a stop, breathlessly, near Gabby.

    "Hi Honey!" she greets chipperly in spite of her breathlessness "Some date night. Seen T-Bae?"

Monet St. Croix has posed:
In Mary's presence, people are fleeing as this turns more from a gaggle over to a 'get out of here' as they realize that things are escalating. And there's still no police that are there to make a cordon, isolate things, or try and pull them away. No first repsonders, no medical services, no SWAT teams..
    Victor is going to ge this fun and his blood as he accepts his payment. There's someone going to lash out at him as other members of the Friends of Humanity are running into the melee. Guns are out, weapons being flung into things. Grenades, rifles, and the occasional laser blast shooting through things.
    Rachel has her time to prepare herself as she goes to make a bright flame within the air as it's focused on psionic energy. This has a lancing plasma beam going up at her from another energy rifle.
    Then it's joined by something else. An albino member of the MLF goes to rise up with his hand, even as it turns over to a shotgun. And moves to if not stpped by Gabby blast up at her with a rather powerful jolt of some sort of fusion energy!
    Some in the crowds are starting to hesitate over from the psychic biuldup and pressure. Others aren't. What's happening is those who slow are taken down or caught up in their brethren that are frothing.
    Bunny's quick thinking gets people who were lollygagging out of the way. She goes to hit someone's leg and they drop, a couple going to tumble over. Someone goes to take a slash again with a knife, missing. Impossible to tell who it was.
    Franklin is able to get some of the ones fighting to pause. They look around as if caught up over in what they're doing. A mutant goes to take a breath, one hand that held a giant machete going to hold it at a side. A member of the Friends of Humanity that had just been about to charge over at him with a sawed off shotgun hesitating. Each starting to look over at one another dubiously as others are hesitating. THe moment.. However, is cut short as someone goes to target the mutant hesitating with a rifle, and some mutant goes to attack the human hesitating over with a harpoon if not stopped.
    Roberto's use of his powers make sure that the worst of the things flying out in every direction are not escalating. His presence keeps anyone else away from Rachel as she goes to build up the psionic pressure than the one that is trying to take a shot over at her.
    It's a chaotic mess of a melee, even as Tommy goes to seemingly trip over something if not quite as he hears the loud instruction. One of the Mutants goes ot yell at him, "Human GERM!" As if not knowing who he was in passing. One that looked like some sort of large bloated frog covered in spines.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney takes a half-step back keeping Bunny in her peripherial vision as she keeps both fists up with claws out in a guarding gesture. Talking during fights was sometimes necessary, sometimes not a good idea. And sometimes it was hard to tell which was which. "Saw him zooming around the corners--I can still smell him but too many people to focus." Her sense of smell was still not her strongest ability to begin with. She'd only had it a year, and often it was more of an 'overwhelming smells' kind of situation. Like now, with anger, and blood, and probably some other yucky stuff around. Plus that pepper spray she'd got a few guys with added an interesting spice to the mix.

"You should really fall back--" she starts to urge the less experienced girl when the mutant T-1000 his arm into a gun aims at her. With a small noise she twists to plant a hand on Bunny shoving her away with a yelp of, "SHIELDS!" to warn her. To protect her. To get shot in the goshdarn face by some weird energy/physical blast that sends her flying back through the crowd.

A few people are plowed through and knocked down right up until she ends up smacking to a halt against a much larger, sturdier figure.

Oh hai there Sabertooth.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Bunny takes a deep breath as she watches the arm turn into a gun, and she gives out a cry of "SHIELDS UP!!" as she raises both arms, curling her legs under her to make herself smaller again as she forms a bubble around herself and possibly one or two other confused people in there with her as she holds the line against the blow, and rolls off away from Gabby in a slow fashion!

Franklin Richards has posed:
Franklin sighs, as it was no good he wasn't helping the situation at all feeling a bit of frustation at not knowing how to change this without fundemently changing the people involved. So instead he decides to release some frustation as if takes them down then at least they are not shot, or stabed, or whatever it is that is going on over where the lines met. First the person targeting the mutant, with a flick of a finger slides away knocking down anyone is his path as he just slides with speed towards the structure. Franklin was sure the impact wouldn't kill him, but he would be sure to feel it in the morning, and not be in the fight here any longer.

Next came the mutant with the harpoon as he also feels the fling launching in the air this time away as it seems Franklin is making a path. Then he stopped and looked spotting Gabby, though he didn't know it was Gabby, just reconising the X then hears her call out for shields.

Around Gabby, aa small circular bubble would pop up coming inbetween her and whatever may come from that specific direction as Franklin reaches out a hand to block what he could. He gives them a smile, with a wave in the middle of the chaos, he would drop the shield again and head that way himself.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Tommy's still covering his ears with his hands despite it having done absolutely nothing against the whole telepathic voice in his head thing, so when another mutant yells at him, Tommy can only blink owlishly at him. "Wait, what?" he asks, hands lowering, so that the insult can be repeated.

    And all Tommy says is: "Bruh."

    He shakes his head, turning away to listen to the sounds of fighting, glimpsing bits of action here and there as he pops his head up. Upon seeing Gabby take a blast to the face and go flying, which sends his heart into his stomach... or his stomach into his throat... basically his whole system is messed up, and sp Tommy breezes by the guy hurling human slurs at him at a speed so fast that a serious wind whips past with him, enough to bowl the other mutant right over.

    Navigating the crowd at super speed isn't easy, though. Actually it's kind of a nightmare, and Tommy finds himself ping-ponging left and right, avoiding the swings of improvised weapons and ducking under obvious gunfire paths. It's only thanks to one of the two people he's looking for lighting herself up like a rainbow disco ball that Tommy can find Bunny, and with a slap his hands land on the outside of her glimmering prismatic shield.

    Tommy is now pushing a hamster-balled Bunny around at high speed. If he thought he was playing pinball before, now Tommy's knocking out bumpers (AKA, anyone with a weapon) left and right! Wait, actually he was thinking about ping-pong. Oh man he's so frazzled he's even lost the thread of his own internal monologue's analogy!

Rachel Summers has posed:
Luckily for Rachel, she always has a passive psionic shield. Unluckily, energy blasts are weird. The one shot at her plows directly into her chest, burning through her passive protection and into her actual body armor. The psychic pressure wavers hard, and Rachel grits her teeth to keep it controlled. If it went loose uncontrolled, there would be a lot of dead people. Luckily, she's good at this.

The phoenix aura seems to scream, and the wings flare as Rachel ascends, arcing out to hover over the melee. Projectiles fly at her and at everything else, until they simply don't. Bullets leave guns, and their momentum stops, becoming nothing but slugs of metal hovering in the air. Grenades and molotovs arc through the sky, only to float harmlessly, the grenades rocketing skyward to explode harmlessly, reaching suborbital is seconds. Any weapon that leaves the hands of a person is grabbed in midair and stopped. Rachel's voice echoes through the minds of everyone present. It's resonant and furious.

<GO. HOME.>

Victor Creed has posed:
Sabertooth was taking a break from the blood letting to stand up and peer around, his larger frame giving him good perspective as to the melee. True to his word, he had not killed anyone (yet), but there were definitely some scars that would lead to memorable stories. Although likely not as memorable as they could be if they realized just how many people those claws had killed. But $50k is not an insignificant amount of money.

He gets ready to move to another section where there are fewer bloody people and therefore more in need of her services when all of a sudden he is delivered a gift from the gods. Not that he necessarily knows exactly who just crashed into him, but he knows the /smell/.

"Just like Logan, too small to keep your feet in a melee like this, huh kid?" He laughs a bit, and for a moment those razor sharp claws pass near Gabby's head, but then they shred through a metal bar that was coming down at her skull. "Hope you got some of his shit, because otherwise this is not a good place for a little thing like you."

Grant Ward has posed:
Word had gotten to SHIELD that the demonstration that no one expected to remain peaceful had, in fact, not remained peaceful. Was it even planned as peaceful? Either which way, there was too much firepower flying around for them to send a full response team, so it was time to send in the infiltrator. Slipping into the melee as it was unfolding, Grant Ward moved around fluidly, ducking blasts and swings and the like to carefully take cheap close shots with ICERS at some of the more aggressive members of the crowd. Yes, that left them on the ground to get trampled, but that was there problem. He was trying to thin out the crowd, in the hopes that maybe one side will declare victory and leave.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
    For a brief moment, Mary thinks she is about to make it into the clear. She is nearing the edge of the miasma of bodies, and although she has taken a few shots to the ribs, she is keeping hold of her breath. She just needs to be able to say one word. Just. One. Word.

    And that's when a blast from afar cuts down a large man armed with a rifle just beside her. She has no time to move out of the way, and nowhere to go either as the man comes down on the back of her leg. Her knee gives out and she tries to grab onto one of the men remaining upright next to her, gripping on his shirt. Maybe in other circumstances, he might have been kinder. Taken her hand and helped her up. But in a situation like this? It's survival of the fittest. He shoves her hands away and pushes through the crowd, sending her down to the ground.

    Leaving Mary to silently calculate just how damaging a lightning bolt would be to the people swarming around above her.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
The world was ringing. Between Rachel's psychic scream and the blast she'd taken that had momentarily left her ears ringing until they recovered. The sheild that Franklin had put up at least kept some of the blast from her though not enough to not end up leaning against the very tall man laughing--Wait. A quickly drawn breath is taken as the words sink in. Logan. And then she watches his hand rake out to take that metal bar out easily.

She responds rather well given the situation by raising her hand to give a thumbs up. Followed right after by the claw on the back of her hand coming out as she levers herself back to her feet. "Yep. Got the short end of the stick, but it's pointy," she declares with a little bit of cheer in spite of the situation. "Not how I ever expected to meet you though. Ah... And there goes my ride I think," she mutters watching Tommy push along a rainbow sphere of a shield.

An awkward pat is given to Sabertooth's arm along with a quick, "Keep up the good work! But I think the party poopers just showed up."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Gabby goes to quick move to disarm someone - metaphorically or literally, take your pick. There's a quick smash through over of thigns as she goes to drop the man that was going to threaten Rachel. Then Creed is there over as the man with the bat going at him stumbles over. There'sa nother person going to aim over at Creed with what might be a pistol. Yelling at him and swearing something almost feral.
    Right before he would have his leg clawed out from under him by a feline wearing a purple pressed outfit looking gleefull. "Kill 'em all!" FERAL.
    Landing hard over on the ground leaping from a nearby building over towards Bunny is a brutal, tall man that has four arms going to step towards her. "I'll give you a chanc eto run or I break off little bits of you like you're a wishbone and it's a holiday." FOREARM. Right as TOmmy gets her out of teh way, leaving the leviathan member of the Mutant Liberation Front caught by surprise. "What the F--!?"
    Franklin goes to launch anyone over in the general vicinity voer to the ground and disable them as he adds to the circle of protection (or in the case of Creed, stab-tection).
    Rachel's cry is boosted in the air, hitting minds - willing or not, there's enough power to it to convert most despite their bloodlust. She could in circumstances make them all pause, stop, and return. But she's not going to have that chance. Right as a woman flying through the air at high speed with mechanical wings would SLAM into her, smashing through her shields and possibly sending her hurtling towarsd the ground. "WE don't like messing up our playtime." DRAGONESS.
    And going over into the mess of people over by Mary is what looks over like someone made of.. Spikes. Many, many spikes. Humanoid, the sort of roundness to him that might make him a Morlock. "Sorry Flatscan, but I'm going to need to make a bit of a mess." SPIKE goes to step over towards her with one of those spikes from his arm going to extend over towards her as he would walk, blade in hand.. Most people around her have fled, there's no one with a good sightline of ehr, and the person attempting to attack hedr has no idea who she is.
    And for the quickly arriving Grant, there's a bark over a radio. "YOU! I'm inside, get me out of here!" An authorative bark. Someone who knew he was there despite his staying at the periphery. A man infamous in government circles (even moreso in mutant ones). One impossible to mistake..
    Henry Peter Gyrich.

Victor Creed has posed:
Laughing at Gabby's words, Sabretooth shakes his head. "You guys are nothing BUT the short ends of the stick," he says, his claw reaching out to slash at another nearby assailant. "Give Logan my regards," he calls out as Gabby leaves. He watches her go until his head whips around, orienting towards something in the crowd. "Oh no, the party has JUST shown up."

Yes, there is a FERAL mutant nearby that Sabretooth would probably enjoy tangling with. But he knows that voice over the radio. He looks around. Inside. "I'll give it back to ya if I have to, 'berto," Victor calls as he starts loping off towards the building. "Cuz I'll come out way ahead."

Is there murder in Sabretooth's eyes? Isn't there always?

Mary Bromfield has posed:
    Once her knees hit the ground, Mary crouches down and tries to cover her head, having some sense of what to do in this sort of situation. Trying to get out will just end up with greater injury. Compress, protect, and wait it out. And then the press of legs around her is gone, as if by some miracle.

    She picks her heads up and sees the approach of Spike, and understands why suddenly people are giving her spot a wide berth. As the bladed man advances on her, she grits her teeth and says a silent thank you to the wizard's council for her fortune. And a not so silent SHAZAM.

    A bolt of lightning descends from the sky, enveloping the girl in a flash of brilliant light.

    And the smell of ozone and barbequed spike wafts off from the spot as she blurs up and into the sky to get some perspective on the fight below.

Grant Ward has posed:
    There is a roll of Grant Ward's eyes as the voice breaks through the radio. The radio that was supposed to remain silent. For obvious reasons. Ward looks around quickly to make sure no one nearby heard Gyrich. They would be like moths to a flame if they knew he was here, in the flesh. And unprotected.
    "I'd rather have to deal with my birthday party than this," he mutters to himself as he starts trying to fight his way through the crowd to Gyrich's decidedly _unsecure_ location. Although part of him wonders if maybe, just maybe, he should take his sweet time getting there...

Franklin Richards has posed:
Franklin is getting closer protecting himself as the wave of mental energy hits him as well, fighting the urge to leave as he had not felt that before he stops moving forward and shakes his head. This is long enough to lose Gabby again, as he looks up and of coure as Victor moves over there Franklin looks about to see where that one might of came from because if they were part of this he might actually need to worry. Though go home wasn't that scarry of a message so he would figure it is for the best.

Deciding to keep his travel through the fight he starts passing into the mutant side thankfully it seemed a bit easier over here with everyone deciding to go after the people shooting them rather then just the obvious mutant that was on the wrong side of the line. Of course he is walking towards the exit when Boom, ozone, and he has to turn and head that way instead as that could actually do some real damage if someone could summon lightning from the sky. Maybe he should see if he can give them another chance as he tried earlier unsuccessfully.

Rachel Summers has posed:
Dragoness gets one. Rachel is distracted and focused on making sure people don't die, and thusly she gets body-tackled in midair, a rib audibly cracking from the impact. The psychic is driven into the ground, pavement spiderwebbing underneath her on impact. She breathes hard, eyes glowing white as she stares up at her aggressor.

"You picked the wrong day."

Her counteratack at Dragoness isn't a lance of telekinetic energy. It is, instead, an illusion aimed at her mind. An alteration of her perception of time. Every second seems an hour. (She thought about making it a year, but that's cruel, even for her.)

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "TOMMY THIS IS A BAD IDEA--" was bunny's first expressed thoughts before she is hamsterballed away from the Big Four Armed Bruiser, and then she reconsiders and gives a whoop, then an 'urrp', and then a 'uuugggh' sound as she's spun around, rolled over and finally the bubble 'pops, with her onsteadily weaving on her skates.

    "Let... Let's grab... grab the badger and make like a tree--"

    She makes a face, going green around the gills

    "... and gedouddahere."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Once you start introducing enemies with codenames, it's time to go. That's what Tommy thinks, anyway, which has absolutely nothing to do with the psychic blast to go home that he gets right... about... now. GO HOME! Now Tommy wants nothing more than to scoop Gabby up and run her and Bunny both all the way back to Brooklyn.

    So that's what he does. With little fanfare (though some gentleness in deference to Bunny going green) Tommy sweeps her up into his arms, and actually it's Bunny who gets to travel bridal style, sorry Gabs. Then he's on the move, zigzaging through the crowd to find--"Gadger! Babby!" Pause. He hisses out an impolite word, aimed mostly at himself (but okay a little at the general situation). "Just hop on!" is what he settles on saying to Gabby, and then he does as Bunny commanded, making like a tree and leafing the hell outta here!

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There's a flash of light in a mystical thunderbolt as the man about to attack Mary is knocked flat on his ass! No one is around to see who it is or what happened, just that there's a massive bolt of power and then a girl flying up in the air! What's out there for her to see is chaos. Several dozen fighters on both sides brawling with weapons, intent to kill. Many injured. The Friends of Humanity building on fire. The civilians have all gotten out of the area, and ofrtunately there are no other buildings around at any risk.
    Grand Ward commits the cardinal mistake of not preparing in advance for 'some sort of technical failure, I never received his message' in the after action report, and thus will have to pay the price of it. Which means having to handle Gyrich. But he'll have plenty of justification voer to stall as long as possible. Even as bullets fly past and other, nastier things as a spew of acid goes to burst around him, missing by several feet. Definitely not a nice neighborhood.
    As Dragoness goes to charge over at Rachel, there's a sudden shriek by her as she loses all sense of time.. But with awareness. This has her crumpling over into a nearby building as seconds seem like hours. And it will be months before she's realized that she smashed into something and has broken most of the bones in her body from the impact.
    Franklin is relatively safe for the moment, no one really in a position to threaten over at him. Forearm is still a distance away from her, and has lost full track of her, looking through the crowd.. Even as a pair of humans go to try and attack him and he's likely lost in the melee.
    Creed.. WEll, Creed has apaprently found something more interesting than the cash that Berto offered to chase after. That can't be a good thing. The scent of Henry Peter Gyrich is easily dientifiable. The man is inside the front corridor, yelling into a phone and screaming threats at someone to get there (poor Grant).
    For Tommy, Bunny, and Gabby, they go to play totem pole as they dart and get out of dodge as they make a tactical decision and the group retreats. Energy blasts missing them by far. So they have the oppotunity to fall back without being at risk.

Grant Ward has posed:
Making a quick glance around, Grant makes careful note that there are not any other SHIELD members on the ground right now. He also makes note of the blonde making a beeline into the building. He makes his trademark "Nope" face, and finds many, many combatants to subdue as he glacially makes his way towards the building where Gyrich is housed.

Rachel Summers has posed:
Rachel levers herself off of the ground. She's beat up. She looks mad. The little voice in her head says that she can fix this. Just turn the Friends of Humanity's brains into goo. It'd be so easy. Instead, she grits her teeth and ascends. If they're focused on killing each other, and her own people attack her instead of doing the wise thing? Fine. She's done.

Her shields intact again, Rachel rises, ascending higher and higher until she's just a red spec in the sky, and then she's gone. Her compassion is spent, wasted on people who do not want it, nor do they deserve it. Either side.

Honestly, she needs to leave, lest her temper get the best of her and she does starth lashing out. It's best this way.

Franklin Richards has posed:
As things are while maybe not stoping, but slowing dowm Franklin is already moving to the outside. He approaches where he thinks the lightning stuck to look around suspiciously not sure what caused it but seeing the ground mark to confirm this is the location. He looks around at the people there and aks "Everything alright?" offering a hand to Mary knowing it is a dumb question at the time. He didn't know her, or what caused that, but there was someone knocked down that wasn't shooting lasers or a gun so he figured it might be okay to stop and ask.

Raising a hand to make sure the direction of the fighting is to block the path between he asks after a short pause, "You wouldn't know the way out of here would ya.. I think I am a bit lost."

Victor Creed has posed:
There is definitely SOMETHING going on inside of the building. Friends of Humanity come pouring out screaming about some kind of bear or lion or something, most of them streaked with blood and torn clothing. Those close enough would definitely hear the roar of some kind of wild animal from within.

Less than a minute later, a harried man in a black suit bursts out of the rooftop stairway and runs towards the side of the building. Followed, very closely, by a well dressed lion.

Snarls fill the air as Sabertooth charges at the man responsible for so much misery for his people. Hate in his eyes that far exceeds Roberto's $50k "no murder" bribe. Although perhaps for Gyrich, Roberto might look the other way too.

He can smell the fear on him. Taste it in the air. Delicious vengeance, finally achieved...

Until the helicopter appears just behind him, and the suited man jumps in with panic his eyes.

The screeching sound of claws on steel is heard as Victor falls just short of the rising helicopter, almost getting purchase.

Instead, it flies away, and he plummets down to the concrete below.