16058/Emplates and Extermination

Emplates and Extermination
Date of Scene:	16 October 2023
Location:	Second Floor Landing
Synopsis:	On a dark Friday the Thirteenth, Emplate breaks into Xavier's Mansion, looking for mutants to feed upon. And is fought off, with traumas brought up and used to strengthen rather than terrify.
Cast of Characters:	Monet St. Croix, Joshua Foley, Jubilation Lee, Tabitha Smith, Noriko Ashida, Roberto da Costa

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Monet St. Croix has posed:
It's Friday the Thirteenth. The sky above is miserable in the late evening. It's storming heavily, and many of the students and staff have gone into Westchester or are spread out throughout Xavier's Estate. It makes for a quiet evening, isolated by the misery that is the weather.
    Monet St. Croix is being her usual self, arguing over with Roberto on something. "Of /course/ you're wrong, because I..."
    For those at the Mansion, perspective suddenly shifts. Like an airplane suddenly going to change altitude, and everyone's ears are popping due to the sudden pressure change. For those that can sense it, the upper floor of the Mansion is host to a sudden psionic bubble.
    Monet St. Croix sunddenly snaps like a rubber band. "MARIUS!?" The scream echos through the halls as seh's suddenly charging through them at high speed.
    As she zooms past, there's a -bubble- in the wall, a portal. Popping right out of it is a small, stuffed corpse which.. Is wearing a bellhop's uniform. And a service cap with a tag which reads 'D.O.A.'

Joshua Foley has posed:
Usually, Joshua stays at the Candle, Book and Belle. He has a job there and he does quite well. But after the attack on Cotterman's Creek a night before, the young mutant needed to get away for a night and recenter his mind on what and where he is.

And he was dozing nicely until Monet's scream comes echoing down the hallway. Jolted awake, he assumes there might be an injury. Pushing himself out of bed, he comes out of his bedroom dressed only in a pair of dark blue pajama pants, the golden skin that covers his body is obvious. Bare feet shift as he turns to look around him. "Is someone hurt?!" he calls out.

And that's when his ears pop and he is working his jaw to try to push out the pressure change, reaching up, pressing a palm against one ear. "Owwww." he grumbles.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    A small group of ravens watch the growing chaos through a nearby window. These intelligent birds have long served the interests of the vampires of Westchester, who saw value in their mysterious intellect and silent loyalty. After a sudden change in leadership, the vampires of Westchester have been learning how to text and tweet and now value the ravens for their other talent: gathering intel.

    After a few "caws!" are exchanged with the group regarding the situation, one raven takes to the skies to bring word to their nocturnal mistress, for the shadowy realm of the vampire duchess demands constant vigilance and swift action...

        ---

    POP! The smell of Bubblelicious gum spreads as a pink bubble explodes in front of Jubilation Lee's lips. She's standing in the mall parking lot with a raven that just landed on the handlebars of her Vespa scooter. "Okay, okay, like, are you /sure/ about this?" Jubilee asks, managing to finally get a word out in between the raven's rapid cawing. "I don't want to go there..." she insists. The raven doesn't seem like it believes her.

    "Oh, Shut up!" Jubilee adds, rolling her eyes a little. "No one likes a Crow-It-All.... Okay! /Whatever/, you're a /raven/...like, same thing...Okay, okay, I'm going, outta the way!" Jubilee flips the Vespa's speed setting to the picture of the rabbit and takes off into the night! Zooooooooooom!

    With little choice in the matter, the poor raven takes Jubilee's Sephora bag with its beak and flaps its wings to try and take off.

        ----

    No matter how many times the owner's manual says not to do it, Jubilee keeps the throttle twisted as far back as it will go, forcing the poor Vespa to stay red-lined at its maximum speed: 80mph. She's not the same girl she was when she was a student at the school. Her skin is a lot paler now, some of her teeth are a lot sharper, but at least she ditched that awful cowlick and grew her hair out! It's a lot easier to look cool on a Vespa with hair blowing in the wind.

    Jubilation begins to hum the tune for when the Wicked Witch of the West rides her broomstick outside of Dorothy's window...

Tabitha Smith has posed:
The fact that there's Friday the Thirteenth, in an October where Halloween keeps it's candy laden spooky butt got a chuckle out of Tabitha Smith. Why is she upstairs and not just trudging about to her own place?

Well maybe she's dropping left over brownies of the special kind. Hand baked to some of her over twenty one friends. She'd already dropped them off. And maybe she had plans to go raise hell in the city, the blonde rocking an off the shoulder minidress in a rather vivid but darker shade of purple. Black knee high lace-up boots with a wedge heel making her look taller. Her usual collection of choker, belt, and wrist cuffs in a red leather with dull stainless steel spikes and buckles. Glasses on her nose her red tinted ray bans she totally did not steal from Scott, she has prescriptions.

With the messing of air pressure and the psychic pinging going on, the blonde pinches her nose, covered by some of that wild thick mane of hair as she groans. "What the straight flark is going on?" she yells not long after she hears Monet's voice. "The flark is he?" she mutters <<Monet, the hell?> bad enough the pressure in her head feels like she was joyriding in the blackbird and crashed it in the lake.

She is actually a good pilot and has yet to crash.

Just ask Cyclops!

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko was long ago done with her duties for the day.  She's had time to even get an extra long angry run in in the city.  She then had time to eat three bunches of bananas till she hated herself.  Not because she was full, but because three bunches of bananas straight.  She's had plenty of time for that self-loathing, but Noriko's emotions don't settle and pretty soon she's nosediving into the freezer for some ice cream.

The speedster is still wearing her running outfit, which consists of some three quarters cargo pants, and she shows up suddenly with a tub of rainbow sherbet and a giant serving spoon.  She even sees Monet letting out the scream in slow motion and realizes how cold the ice cream still is.  She rubs the sides vigorously with her un-gauntleted hands after wedging it between her knees, then quickly scoops it back up into her arms before it gets too melty.

"Does he know the password?"  Noriko says at a regular velocity to everyone she already knows is around.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto Da Costa wears a smirk, he had been engaged of his usual M.O concerning Monet, circular reasoning to keep her off balance and himself entertained, he could continue like this for hours as she became more irate. It was sort of argument tai chi he had practiced with Doug and Kitty, he had a unique brand of annoying. He watched her walk away, "Marius? I'm Roberto, are you having one of yo- " He stops and looks over her shoulder, "He does not belong here... " Berto moves to activate what currently passes for security in the mansion as his ears pop, "M, what's going on? Why does it feel like we're underwater?"

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The exterior of the Mansion glows with psychic energy that slowly fades away as the Lady Duchess of Westchester drives up. At least it's not over on a moped? The bubble that was around the upper floors flickers and fades as she arrives. Yup, definitely chaos going along there on the upper floors. And the security system isn't going off from it. Someone's just teleported in. Then the sirens go off and the warnings for the studetns to stay in their rooms as Roberto goes to press the button to trigger it goes off.
    Monet goes to grab the little -thing- in a crushing grip and smashes him up to the wall, "Where is Marius? Where are my sist.." She suddenly freezes in place. Quite literally as she goes still in midair, not moving a muscle. Mid-blink. The psychic connection to Tabitha suddenly goes on full hold, shutting down entirely as she's nonresponsive.
    Next to her some sort of freak'ish looking corpse on a respirator with spiked hair comes out of nowhere. "Sister, dearest. I thought I would drop by and have a chat. But you're being so rude." He goes to take a hand up to the frozen mutant and presses it to her back, where a loud -CRUNCH- fills the air for those near enough to hear it. "I thought I would drop by for a bite."
    Then he's flickering, and appearing next to Joshua. "Aren't you a unique one? I can see your glow." Marius St. Croix, aka Emplate, goes to reach down with a hand towards Josh's back. His hand sinks in, and there's another sickening -crunch- as needles come from his hand, moving to take out some chunks of Joshua's spine before letting hims lump on down.
    "Now for the rest of you, I believe that party time is the term?"

Joshua Foley has posed:
Joshua can sense Marius' biokenetic energy, he's still filtering everyone out as he gets all of those in the hallway at once. If he can focus on where Marius is, he can try to point him out to the others.

However as he's standing out in the hallway, he calls out, "I think he's..."

Behind him.

He's back in the lab. The Rhinocerous mutant about to cut into him with a chainsaw. The ninja that has sliced his leg, and left him as the countdown ticks down. 10, 9, 8...

"Don't leave me, don't leave me.... don't leave me!" He grabs the sides of his head as the explosion in his mind psychicially feedbacks at the same time that Empath shoves his hand through Joshua's back! Golden light flares up from him as his unique biokenetic healing is unleashed, working overtime to try to save Joshua's life, heal his spine, even as part of his chest is ripped out in the process, spilling blood all over the floor as he arches, lifted off the ground and then dropped as he goes to his knees as blood spills out of his mouth and nose, lungs punctured, back ruined and the golden glow that flows out of him is why he starts to be called 'Elixir'.

It's a feast of the Gods for Empath, and to think, he could only be the appetizer!

Tabitha Smith has posed:
The racket isn't hard to track, and for a telepath, trying to zero on Monet might be a headache with all that's going on, but eventually she manages to get to the right part of the mansion where things are throwing down.

Spotting Josh having a really bad day. The blonde might not have his ability to repair wounds and heal damage. But she has her own tricks that she's picked up along the way.

<<Eww, Josh, I'm gonna try and detach your brain from the pain. Uhh, try to not die. That'd suck. really I actually know.>> so she works on flipping the off switch on Elixer's pain receptors.

That still leaves her staring at the culprit.

"Dude, you like so picked a bad fricking time and place for this." she states pretty wickedly. The flash of plasma orbs igniting and swirling around her to light things up, the moving lights shifting shadows around everyone and everything.

"You the guy M yelled at? Mario? Luigi? You look like a munted up Toad!" she taunts.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Red lights start to appear in the distance, signaling that traffic is building on the roads of Westchester. Instead of slowing down and playing it safe, Jubilation 'threads the needle' by riding her Vespa full speed in between the lanes of cars whose drivers suddenly forgot how to drive once the rain began to fall. On nights like this, Jubilee counts herself lucky that she never passed her drivers test.

    At some point, Jubilation grew bored of the Wicked Witch of the West tune and starts shout-singing the song that appears in her head with some gaps in the lyrics. "We're going down down in a whurliroorawndand and sugar we're goin' down swinging! I'll be your numamaba with a bulleta loaded gah carplex cock it and pull it!" she sings, shouting off-key into the stormy night! Thankfully, she reaches the mansion before she's able to do more damage to Fall-Out Boy's legacy. With the alarm going off, the mansion's main gate begins to close. Jubilee juuuuuust manages to get through after a last second change of direction...

    It only takes a few moments to park the Vespa, give the handlebars a quick kiss, and scale a downspout. She goes to open the window and then stops. "Oh shit, I forgot..." she mutters to herself. And so, the vampire who used to call this place her home, bangs her palm on the second floor window so someone can invite her in. "HEY!" she cries out. "HEY!"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Marius...But it's Monet's reaction that fully clues Noriko in.  She watches as Monet has the little bellhop in hand, so Noriko goes down to dump some cherries into her ice cream in the kitchen before returning to Monet being completely frozen and some gross dude who she doesn't have to guess about.

The sherbet is set aside, which is when the first crunch happens.  Noriko doesn't see it.  Her eyes get wide and she looks around, but can't put two and two together.  The second crunch happens when she's tying her shoes.  She was watching the whole time, or trying to, but she didn't know she should care about this weirdo getting touchy feely to begin with, having missed the first crunch.  Witnessing it though, "That can't be good."  The words come out too fast to matter.

"Okay Bro, let's go then,"  there's a stab of guilt as Noriko can only witness the aftermath of Joshua and Monet's attack that the speedster shoves down, down into the energy flowing through her body.  She races up close, without her gauntlets to channel her energy, she relies on proximity more, but let's out a burst of electricity as she gets close enough to touch him, trying to direct it with her fingers.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto Da Costa moves towards Monet, trying to rouse her, "Monet, snap out of it." He tries to shake her but doesn't use his powers just yet. "Come on, Monet, you are far to stubborn to be taken out of the fight this easily and I will never let you live it down if you don't shake this." he reaches out to broader psychic band with an announcement, <<It's Marius. He's in the upstairs hall, Josh's room. Attacked Monet. I'm not sure why he's here other than feeding, which is... you get the gross uncomfortable feeling over the link before the bullet comes through with the major details about Marius. Berto isn't Scott or even Yana but he does read and knows things. He also may not like Monet but she's family and Berto has never back down from a fight. He is of course dressed in a imaculate black suit, a blue shirt with a white check pattern and a pink tie with small blue boxes irregularly spaced. The blue of the boxes matches the blue of the suit.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Josh is left screaming in pain by Emplate?s attack, who lets him slump on down. "My, aren?t you tasty. And a useful one." His eyes would glow with power. "An eternal dinner. When I?m done here, I?ll take you with me. I?ll never go hungry attack. Just to deal with the rest of you."
    This is cut off by Noriko going to slam into him, hitting him with a powerful burst of electricity which would send him flying away to the wall, freeing Josh as Tabitha goes to charge forwards to psionically deaden his pain. The quick infodump from Roberto to the rest of the team follows. Psionic entity, feeds on the powers of other mutants via psionics or physical consumption of bone marrow.
    The detonation?s from Tabitha?s plasmoids go to impact around him, further sizzling and blasting into him and searing parts of his skin away! Then the sizzling stops.. Even as his body starts to heal up, the glow of Elixir?s power being used spreading over him.
    "Definitely a keeper." Emplate would sneer. Also he can absorb and cpoy powers. That?s pretty #*#!?d up.
    Someone better let Jubilee in as she?s helpless! And then popping up and over to the window is the sneering small form of D.O.A., the little corpse over in a bellhop uniform. He would chortle. "My, what the little travesty this is. There?s no place like home, isn?t there? And this place isn?t it!" He would cackle over, pressing his face up to the window to snarl at her mockingly

Joshua Foley has posed:
With Tabitha shutting off his pain sensory, Joshua feels the ability to breathe again as his lungs rebuild. He gulps down breaths as he tries to regain his senses and looks over at Empath as he is sneering at...

Jubilee.

They dated once, he thinks, and there was something that he needed... what was it. Oh! RIGHT!

He spits blood and screams out, "JUBILEE! COME ON IN!" And then he falls face first on the floor while his back heald.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"Keep some distance Nori, maybe go grab a weapon? Upside his nugget without touching. Swing for a window? Also like move Josh to a couch or something." she suggests to the blue haired speedster.

The healing that Super Mario starts demonstrating gets a frowny face. "Not cool, you're supposed to get get smaller when you get hit!" she taunts.

The info dump coming in from Beto getting the hamster wheel of a mind spinning. So she can't just nuke the guy with a single bomb. he can steal powers.

There's a point of her finger and this time it's not so much a spheroid explosive as it is a telekinetically directed stream of plasma. Spiralling and soaring, with maybe a little roaring towards Marius. Then encircling him with the radius around Marius getting tighter and tighter.

"Like right now. Think maybe snack time is over. You been on a binge, time we made you purge!" she states while keeping her feet steady and maybe poised to actually run. Who knows what other powers the guy snagged.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    That's not a face she was expecting to see come to the window. 'What?' Jubilee mouths from the other side of the glass. She brings her index finger up to her ear and gestures to it a couple times. 'What? I can't hear you! Louder, say it louder!' She doesn't make any noise, suggesting that the window might actually be sound-proof when it, in fact, isn't. She's staring at the unthinkable face belonging to a weird bellhop. No one in that outfit would ever dare mock her think that he got away with it.

    Flirting with mortals, even ones dressed like that, from outside their second floor window is Vampire 101, but everyone knows it's way better to go inside if they can. Whatever it was that made it seem like going inside the mansion was absolutely impossible fades away as Jubilation hears a familiar voice inviting her to come inside. It's familiar, yet somehow locked away in faded memories that her dark curse have yet to return to her. It doesn't matter whose voice that was, though, because it's enough to give Jubilation the strength she needs to climb through the window. "Thanks," she begins, shaking her head a little. "...It's starting to rain and, like, the front door was locked as tight as Monet. And..."

    And what does she find when she gets inside...?

    Jubilation stares at the bellhop for a moment before her eyes lower to the young man lying on the floor in front of her. Shirtless? Check. Bloody? Oh yeah. The skin, the smell of plasma and platelets that reach Jubilee's nose are distracting to a degree beyond reason. It's like a flash-bang that reaches all senses at once, briefly interrupting the flight or fight response imprinted in the vampire nature. Why did she come, again?

    Blink. Electricity, ozone, and bananas reach Jubilee's nose. Sensitive and precise like a predator, uniquely tuned to its prey. And there it is. The familiar scent of a certain brand of blue hair dye. It's enough to snap her out of it.

    Without skipping a beat, Jubilee holds out a folded up dollar tucked between her index and middle fingers. She extends it towards D.O.A. A tip for the bell hop. "Would you mind getting my luggage from downstairs?" she sasses, eyes narrowing a little as she regains control of herself.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Tabby!  Mind your own fucking business.  If I moved one of these people I'd probably paralyze them.  Just let me know if someone flatlines...I can maybe help then," Noriko gets out ever so quickly.  She doesn't bother to put distance between her and the gross jerk.

"My gauntlets are busted.  Kind of stupid to stand next to friends right now," the speedster explains in spurts.  "Jubes?"  Noriko finally notices the vampire.  "SHUT UP YOU ROTTING MEATBAG!" She aims her shoe at his rear, knowing that even if she punts him into the heavens, it won't do anything but give her a bum ankle.  She lets her leg swing anyways.

"Hey Jubes!"  Speedsters can appear to multitask.  It isn't a happy greeting.  But it's loud enough to cut through what's going on.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto Da Costa stands from Monet's unresponsive body and moves to the door to Josh's room, his eyes scan the room currently crowded with people. Too many for him to lash out at the level needed to assure Emplate's ouster without risking collateral casualties. "Monet's stable but unresponsive." So, he uses his words. His voice is firm and commanding, the bad service at a restaurant voice, or the 'I'm the CEO that's why' voice, "Marius, you need to go. We won't let you use this school as a pantry. And you aren't taking anyone with you, not tonight, not ever." Big words from a guy who still hasn't triggered his powers but then again why hasn't he triggered his powers?

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Permission is given, and Jubilee is able to make her entrance smoothly, in a totally dignified way that totally goes to show how badass and awesome she is as she goes in for a landing. D.O.A. goes to stare up at her and smirks, "How about no?" The little gremlin goes to pop up and over, moving to reveal a massive array of incisors over and getting ready to take a bite of ehr hand pointing in his direction.. Chompers out..

And then WHAM! Noriko is there to make the delivery and kicks him HARD! Being kicked at superspeed is a rather brutal thing as it goes to slam him up and through the ceiling.. Through the next ceiling.. And then out to vanishs omewhere around the attic. Where there probably isn't much left of him at all if anything. He won't be missed.

Monet is still frozen over in place by the psionic stasis field - and alas does not get to hear the very awesome things that Roberto has called her. Which would totally suck.

Facing Roberto, Emplate goes to charge up his own powers . "And why, pray tell, should I listen to you? The one who has more money than god, that doesn't know what to do with it and takes upon whatever whimsical vanity project he can that will hold his attention for a few minutes and a few hundred million dollars? First a cruise ship, then X-Corp.. OR was it the other way around?" As Tabitha goes to charge up her own powers and moving to get ready to give the rest some cover for whatever they do. Even as the explosive radius goes to blast at him, searing off chunks of him even as it would heal.

Then he goes to pop and vanish and appear right NEXT To Tabitha and goes to makea grab at her if he can! His psionic signature is -really- hard to track so her response is likely based off her very, very excellent hand-eye coordination and ready to be shoved at him at point blank range..

Joshua Foley has posed:
This is not the way that Joshua wanted to see his ex-girlfriend. Bloody and shirtless. It's not like he's trying to seduce her! Wrong place, wrong time! As bone finishes knitting and snaps into place, his spine reforming, Joshua pushes himself to his knees.

"I'll be fine, Jubilee. Hi." he offers in greetings as the hole on his back closes up and he winces in relief as it seals. "Long time no see. Got blown up. Died. Came back. Can do this now. Pretty cool." he pushes himself to his feet and continues. "Tryin' to nail a 720. Not quite there yet. Met a girl. Think she got weirded out when I healed after being disembowled by a Reaver."

"So, probably still single. How about you? Things going great? Not that you seem to even know who I am." With his focus back on Marius, he frowns, teeth gritting. "Let's try this again." he rumbles, his golden skin going dark and dark as black ichor flows over his skin, consuming, blotting out the golden color of his skin. "Great seeing you again. Like the long hair, looks nice on you." he offers casually to Jubliation in passing before he starts to rush at Empath.

"Come take another bite!" he calls out, preparing to body into Empath and start to use his powers to break every bone, shut down every organ that he can get his grip within reach of. The reverse of his healing powers and what makes him so extremely dangerous. "I'm tired of running! I'm tired of hiding! AND YOU ARE GETTING YOUR ASS KICKED!" Just before he can latch onto Tabitha, Joshua latches onto Empath and just starts. "Broken arm! Broken femur! Collapsed lung! Liver laceration! Stomack discomfort!" He's just calling out things to force his mind into focus to start causing as much harm as he possibly can before Empath throws him off.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"Well, fine! Then just zoom around him and if he tanks my shit, just electrocute his ass. No head sponge. This guy is totally on the okay to frag list!" She encourages zappy times of wanna be power drainers that aren't sexy Southern Bells.

Jubes turning up gets a chuckle. "Don't worry, you're not the rotting meatbag she refers too. I think you're just well preserved!" she jokes.

Emplate's taunting of Roberto gets a chuckle. "Oh god that's a aset up and a half." she says while she almost misses his movements in that blink. If he's snagged Monet then the man is waaaaay faster than Tabby's eyes.

Healing too fast for weaksauce blasts.

She almost gets to be the next meal when Josh catches her and he starts rattling off injuries. her own hand right in Marius' face as plasma glows and condenses. It might not look big but it keeps going and up and up the color spectrum till it's white and could light a much larger room.

"Josh, wanna find out if you can survive decapitation with out being decapitated?"

Joshua Foley has posed:
"Do it, Tabby!" Joshua yells at her. He can tank it. He's ninety percent sure he can handle the explosion. The point being -- he's trying to keep Empath busy enough for Tabitha to blow up!

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee frowns when the bellhop says 'no' to her sarcastic demand to go fetch her pretend luggage from the pretend lobby. "Well, then how about /no tip/?!" she replies, giving her absolute best impression of a Karen throwing her weight around at a Howard Johnson. The joke is cut short when the teeth come out, though. It's a quick moment, but the vampire has short bursts of speed when she needs them. The air between Jubilee and the Bellhop begins to snap, crackle, and pop. A few tiny explosions of color start to form, but they disappear into nothingness when the Bellhop is kicked through the ceiling by a certain blue-haired speedster...

    ...Who calls her a rotting meat bag. Maybe. A rotting meat bag who is now standing next to her shirtless, bloodied ex-boyfriend whose name, voice, and form return from memory in an instant. Uh.

    "...Oh.../Josh/!..." Jubilee announces, shoulders rising awkwardly as her confidence is replaced by personal horror. "...Uh, hi. No, no, of course I remember you...I mean, you..." Her eyes dart back to Noriko and then Josh. "Look, let's, uh, let's catch up later, okay? Something tells me we've still got a loser infestation in this joint..."

    And there he goes, casually complimenting her hair like it's no big deal before shifting into hero mode. The compliment to her hair causes her to instinctively reach up and touch it with her fingers. Her eyes immediately dart to Noriko, blinks, and then back to the prodigal Joshua. "...Oh...that's..." She looks back to Noriko. Then Josh. Then Tabby, who tries telling her that Nori didn't call her a rotting meat bag. Jubilation's expression sours. 'Rotting meat bag?' she mouths to the speedster before chasing after Josh and Tabby.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko grins and leans to watch the holes appear.  She /never/ gets to do that!  "Wow."  And right about then is when she becomes utterly distracted just staring at Josh and Jubilation.  Just staring.  That's why she only feels the heat catching off of Tabitha's glowing mistake-for-someone-waiting-to-happen first, but then hears Tabby's question.  "Don't assume I know what's-"  Noriko is complaining when she realizes she doesn't have time to sit around and be slow enough so anyone can understand her /and/ not have consequences.  She sighs, exasperated.

But avoiding Tabitha's attack means getting closer to Jubilation and Josh, close enough to hear that compliment, which she mocks at ultra speed soundlessly.  "Dude you weren't the only person who got ripped a part."  The speedster just looks rather cold, annoyed, but her heartbeat is thumping and there's crackling electricity coming off her fingers.  She squeezes her hands into fists and opens them again as if she could extinguish the bolts (she can't).

"You know I'd never call you that," is all Nori says to Jubes about the matter.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto Da Costa smiles easily even as the chaos erupts, "But you /have/ heard of me... does Monet talk about me alot? She does, doesn't she. That sly fox, I was really starting to believe the whole 'I'm too good to care' riff" He nods, moving closer, "She never mentions you, you're an afterthought, really. I mean we all have family like that, don't we?" He wrinkles his nose and then glances at Tabs for confirmation, "Losers, who can't stop trying to grab at our success. Who can't seem to make a life for themselves so they try to glom onto ours. I mean why else would you be here? You've got nothing else, you're nothing without her and she is doing just fine, better than fine without you." His expression remains the same, that same bland smile, it's a key to negotiation, advantage, disadvantage, never let them know.

    Berto's muscle tense as he readies himself for what comes next.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Emplate thinks that Elixir and Tabitha aren?t an issue. They?re just irritants. Tabitha doesn?t have the power to hurt him that he can?t respawn himself from" And Elixir?s just a permanent meal ticket that he can feed from forever-more.

He?s in fact with Josh over at point blank range and going to GRAB onto him to shove his fists into that he?s not aware that Elixir can /reverse/ things. Very, very rapidly.

He goes to SCREAM as his insides start to melt over on him as he lets out a howl of fury and pain that he can only try to shove and use more of his own power source to stop! And then Tabitha goes to DETONATE in front of him as that explosion goes off point blank to his face!

He can only flicker away and reappear, much of his face melted, the respirator that he somehow needed to remain active blasted off.. "You?ll regret that." Anger in his voice, even with heavy breathing. The fact he hadn?t lost his head was testament that when he had come into contact with M he had taken her invulnerability. He does.. However, have the time to taunt Roberto even as bits o fhim are melting ff and he?s having to use his own psionics to hold himself together. "I?m sure that we can remedy that in the greater scheme of things. I?ll enjoy showing you what TRUE power gives."

Now he has to act tactically. His eyes set over upon Jubilee. Or more importantly, on Noriko. Superspeed. Electricity. Too hard to catch with the others around the room going ot pepper him with attacks and weakened. But.. Next to her..

He goes to charge through the air, flying at supersonic speeds with his fist out aimed over at Jubilee. "You?ll do." His intent is to just take a bite of Jubilee to keep on going and give himself a pep-up to try and give him enough power to take out the rest of these X-Brats"
    He goes to fly on right past Noriko, attempting to breakaway from her interception, charging towards Jubilee with fist outstretched. First grab the girl for a quick snack, then use the charge to intercept Noriko.. Whom will come to attack him again as soon as he?s done with Jubilee and teh others are repositioning.. It?s all being worked out in his head. Roberto, as the tactician, and Tabitha, the veteran can both get this simple plan very, very directly.

Joshua Foley has posed:
The blast sends Joshua flailing backwards and slamming into the wall. There's a groan as the completely black body pushes up and he starts healing the parts of his face and neck that got blown apart when he realizes Tabitha got hurt.

His attention turns fully towards the blaster, "Crap, Tabby, I'll be there in a moment!" The drama around him is forgotten for a moment. Empath was able to turn Joshua's power of Tabitha, fortunately Joshua can heal Tabby -- once he gets over there!

Tabitha Smith has posed:
This is where Tabby gets frustrated, what will it take to actually drop this guy. Well she does have an idea but then the school might not survive.

Sadly while she does do some major melting of face, and even blows a sizable hole in the wall leading outside to the night sky, it wasn't enough. But if it was, everyone else might be having the bad day Tabitha is experiencing.

Worse than that the bastard powers through and shifts Josh's hand, and his use of his powers onto Tabitha.

And she does not have a healing factor. There's crack, her thigh twitching and she collapses while her none blasting right arm twists on it's own in some wrong directions.

She'd scream but all that comes out is a cough of phlegmy blood as air has trouble getting in and out of the collapsing blonde. Dripping down her chin and maybe requiring some major dry cleaning of that dress.

On the floor in a broken mess. Those blue eyes stop glowing from her powers, though they don't close.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation stands there, fingers feeling her hair, hair that had just been complimented. She's just in this weird kind of daze, lost in an inward-facing world that gets ripped from her in an instant! Jubilation is grabbed the fiendish Emplate, held in the air by his mighty claws. It seems like her nights are numbered. After all, he's this big, hulking thing, the terror of Monet's life, and he's got little 'ol Jubilation in his hands.

    "Oh, gee, no, no, don't eat me, Mister!" Jubilation pleads. "Don't take my /powers/!" She doesn't sound that frightened. She lets the moment hang for a second before a knowing, closed mouth smile forms. Moments ago, she had been lost in the girlish whimsy of an imagined love-triangle, fingers toying with her own hair, getting tongue tied, unable to manage her own personal life let alone this situation. But now? Now, she has Emplate right where she wants him and it's time to drop the act.

    "So, I bet you're asking yourself, 'Oh gee, how come I'm not filling up on this tasty little snack?'" Jubilee begins. "...Is it really true what they say? That if I eat Chinese food I'll just be hungry again in an hour?" She rolls her eyes. "...So, I knew you'd be ugly and stupid, you know, since you're related to Monet and all, but I didn't think you'd be /this/ stupid!" Her entire tone has shifted. Her confidence has returned in an instant. It was all an act.

    Jubilee just dangles there, apparently helplessly, while continuing to mouth off to Emplate. "...Yeah, so, this is getting boring and I think I've reached the limit to how long I can stand that breath of yours," Jubilee adds, wrinkling her nose for maximum effect. "...So, you might be looking forward to some kick-ass fireworks, like, snap-crackle-and-pop, right? I don't blame you, they're /awesome/! But, I know you. I read all about you, dude. You got a taste for mutants. I get it, I really do. /Believe me/....I /get/ it! But the thing is... Nobody, nobody, eats these mutants. No one except me."

    Pause for effect. Pause for effect.

    "...See, the thing is... we have the same problem with empty mirrors, don't we? I mean, like, yours is just 'cuz your reflection quit... But.../me/....Well, you probably should've looked at the nutrition facts before you put your money in the vending machine. See, I'm not a mutant. Not anymore. I'm a vampire."

    As soon as Jubilee finishes, she plunges her fangs deep into Emplate's neck!

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko has her back to the creature that is supposedly Monet's brother...because she's dumb, and because she's too busy grumpily pouting as she stews over the compliments that Josh is giving Jubes that now Noriko can no longer give her or sound like a dummy.  Yeah she's too busy stewing about that.  So all she hears is, "You'll do," coming.  When he flies past, Noriko tries to jam her own hand through his back to see if he likes how it feels but actually whiffs it when she sees Josh get blasted back.

Noriko /will/ try to rabidly attack Emplate, electricity shooting out from her in wild spikes of anger.  She tries to taser him into submission while Jubilation is delivering her speech.  So supportive.  "Jubes eww no!" she actually shouts, her charge having released him during the shocking bite.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto Da Costa moves like the dancer he is. He knows what the next step needs to be, he knows where it needs to take place, Berto has a secret. He doesn't pursue, he's bidding his time as the players make their moves. He winces as Josh gets blasted and then Tabby takes the hit and sighs looking even more determined. Nodding as Josh moves to help, he is a handy guy to have around. Scott will probably be trying to schedule some danger room sessions around those powers if they let him. He should have seen M's powers being taken and he does reproach himself for that but it doesn't change the endgame, long as he stays in this room long as he can stay under his skin. "Is that why you keep running away from me? I'm positively quaking. I'm sure Monet would be too, if you weren't so scared of her that you had to ambush her... your little sister." He shakes his head, "I mean you're really to pathetic to be a monster, just a sad little boy."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Josh is a meal ticket. But requires conditioning first. That?s what Emplate intends to do with him when he?s finished off this riff-raff. At the way things are going, however.. He?s getting ahead of himself. He has to deal with the riff-raff first. And what was turning into a quick run for a snack and a chekcup on his dear sister is turning into quite a taxing melee. Tabitha is left in a slump on the ground and Joshua is charging towards her to help her. That nullifies the two of them for the moment, even as Emplate is having to psionically restrain his insides and upt them back in their proper place.
    So when he goes to charge at Jubilee, it?s with the sole intent on holding her, feeding from her quickly, and discarding her so that he can go after Noriko, that has the speed he needs to deal with everyone else? And he goes to grab at Jubilee. "I don?t -care- for your long winded imbecility. But since you seem so insistent on it, I?ll just wring it out of you.." Even as he goes to grab her and moves for the pin but something is.. Wrong.
    He?s not feeling anything from her. He?s not picking up a psionic signature. He?s not able to rend into her, devour her life force, her marrow.. He?s getting nothing from her!? Apparently all the distinction on her vampirism being a curse is a thing which plays heavily into a part. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" His hand going up to try and go to her neck with intent to strangle.
    "What.. Are.." He?s actually freaking out here. More than having had his face nearly nuked off and his upper body obliterated by the nastycombo of Josh and Tabitha. More than Joshua showing that his powers could be reversed and used to kill just as effectively as they could heal. Jubilee catches him by total surprise.
    CHOMP! He?s rather tasty as Jubilee goes to feed on him. WEll, in a monstrous sort of way. He does stil have blood, even as he?s psionically going to hold his body together as Jubilee feeds. He lets out a scream of pure agony and spasms, moving to struggle until he can physically hurl her away! Monet is dropped to the ground like a doll, hitting it and dropping hard as she?s far from Emplate?s priority at the moment.
    And then Noriko is hitting Emplate from behind with her superspeed and lightning, rapidly draining away any further resistance he has as he can just fling around with an attempted telekinetic bolt to send her flying!
    And then there?s Roberto left standing dancing on in. "You?ve run your mouth. That?s enough. I?ll run you to the ground." He doesn?t care about M, but these upstarts mouthing off to him is too much! Roberto?s powers are impressive, and while he does -need- mutants to feed on.. Well, he can go to Bushwick for that. Now these idiots need punished. And it will be a just irony to use them to kill one another. "So how about I show you the way the world works, boy. It?s a consumption based society." Then he goes to try and grab onto Berto, intent on putting him in a complete psionic hold to immobilize hm and drain him down to a husk!

Joshua Foley has posed:
As he gets all his bits and bops back, Joshua can only stare in horror at what he accidentally did to Tabitha in all of this. Crawling across the floor, Elixir makes his way to the pile of Boom-Boom on the floor and gets on his knees next to her. "Crap, I'm sorry." he whispers, panic in his voice.

The coloring of his hands switches back to those whorls of gold as he places his hands on Tabitha's side and starts to heal her, the golden glow rising around him and probably drawing the wrong attention. "Keep him off me! I can't harm and heal at the same time!" he yells at the others.

There's tears in his eyes as he tries to heal the blonde next to him. "Come on, Tabby... heal, you're gonna make me feel awful guilty..." he swallows the dry lump in his throat. And the glow continues to engulf the pair as he uses his biokenesis to find and heal Tabitha's injuries. Clearly Jubilee's perceieved triangle just became a square.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
There are tricks to dealing with all that pain all at once. Usually it's drugs. For telepath's it's a flick of pain receptors. But in this case when it might be that you don't know if the guy than can fix the problem can get a chance to fix things.

The residents of the school mid fight might suddenly see double Tabithas. Emplate might as well with his senses. The hot mess on the ground all crumpled and snapped here and there. And a more translucent version in a soft pink bodysuit instead of a dress, red gloves and boots and all those usual punky accessories and ponytail replacing the loose mane of blonde.

<<Live fast, die young, leave a good looking corpse.>> she tsks and nudges her own body with a toe.

Turning to face where Marius is feeling like tables have been turned via Jubilee she walks, or floats to the side not with a cute vampire girl getting the worst bad breath ever. <<Right now, we've probably already made enough racket. The bosses will be coming in any second now.>> she points out while for the first time in a while she can sort of stand in arms reach of Noriko and not be drained in reverse electrocution. <<So like this beating. Cause I bet that you can heal but like fuck that's all still gotta hurt. Is only gonna ger waaaaaaay worse.>> she taunts.

Over by her body while Josh gets to work she chuckles. <<I kinda noped out Josh, figure when you done I'm still gonna be lights out.>>

Which leaves her back to Emplate, still focusing on Roberto. Once again the image of a hand is shoved in Marius' face, and another glow of what appears to be plasma. Though this time it's pure psychic Tabby energy. <<Wanna feel a plasma burn inside your mind>>

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Tabitha is only next to Noriko for an instant before the speedster is hit by that telekinetic bolt, sending her flying through at least one wall.  There was only that one satisfying moment of letting all that charge flow freely before Noriko sees nothing, feels nothing, says nothing.  Unconscious, the speedster is now vulnerable, but no longer close and handy.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation latches onto Emplate's flesh, as disgusting as it might be, so when she's thrown away, she comes off with flesh and viscera dangling from her mouth. While she may have put on a couple of different performances in this little scuffle, she reverts to one of her earliest, one from her childhood, once she's tossed by Emplate. Jubilation Lee: gymnast. She lands not far from Monet's body, both feet hitting the ground together like she planned it. Her mouth is closed, cheeks full with something.

    As soon as she lands, Jubilation's face recoils with disgust. She bends forward and spits out as much of Emplate's blood that she can, mouth wide open, tongue sticking out as far as it can go. "Bleecghhhhhhh!" she cries out, frowning deeply. "Ughgh. Achhhhh." Unable to recover from the look of disgust, Jubilee just stops trying. Instead, she bends down next to Monet and gives her cheeks a couple of light smacks to, maybe wake her up? The third smack is because she's Monet.

    While the others continue to deal with Emplate, Josh with Tabby, Jubilee deals with Monet. She starts pulling on the girl's ankle, looking to get her towards that huge hole that Tabby blasted in the side of the mansion. It's an easy way out. She's still retching. "...Monet...Your brother...tastes fucking gross," is all Jubilee says, whether she can be heard or not. Wait. Her head perks up like a meerkat. "Nori?" she calls out. Without thinking about it, Jubilation drops Monet's leg and stops dragging.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Emplates grabs roberto, accompanied by that loud crack and his fury gives Marius focus. He pulls Roberto's lifeforce consumes it even as Marius reaches into Berto's mind to cause more pain to prevent the Brasilian from fighting back.

    telepathy... it always comes back to telepathy-

    Roberto is in a small room, a cell, and a woman with Jean's face is standing over him, "Oh, yes, this one next, your first Christmas, can't leave that lying around" She destroys the memory, she is taking his mind apart memory by memory, there's barely any left. Just a framework of emotions and disjointed images. It's torture, something he rarely talks about, something he worked long and hard to rebuild but there are still scars blanks spaces no one can fill in. But as Emplate reaches into his mind he is still in the moment, the moment of pain, the moment he fought back. Sinister was the mastermind behind the torment and he was using collars to control them, Berto resisted and nearly beat the collar. Berto relives it but her there is no collar and his power activate in a new way. It does what it was trying to do in that moment.

    The duress, the panic and fear, Roberto pulls for the energy of his mind the same way he does for the light around him. His mind disappears from the psychic link, from Marius' clutches and Berto is back, a deep breath and his power is active.

    He smiles, the trap has been sprung, "You aren't my first psychic vampire Marius." Berto grabs his hand, holding him close, forcing the energy of his body into Marius, "And she was a monster worthy of the name, you're a pale shadow." Berto doesn't play it up but he's easily several times stronger than Monet. He doesn't really strain holding Emplate immobilized against him, and forcing that energy into his frame more energy than Selene could stand and far more than Marius can take but Roberto doesn't relent, "Where are they Marius? Where are your sisters?" He won't relent, "Let her go, let them all go."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Emplate is desperately reaching out now for one final burst. He's on fire, eh's being blasted, he just needs one final snack to take them all out even as Jubilee is spitting away all that she bit of him. And is totally -eww- now. And he goes for Roberto.
    Roberto that he sees as the weak link. The rich brat that does nothing and gets all the adulation as Marius suffers, hidden away, and thinks he's all better than the rest of him.
    The psionic attack is intended to make Roberto weak and helpless, leave him vulnerable for consumption. And he goes to latch onto Roberto at close range, even as Berto's memories go to those dark, twisted places of hate and suffering and torture. And Tabitha is riding it along, while all of his psionic energy is focused an dopen, and he's acting on instinct. She goes to provide the metnal BOOM for the BUCK.
    And then Emplate goes to SCREAM over as Roberto goes to throw all that energy back into him that's more than he can take. It's faster than he can absorb it, than he can redirect it. It's like being a vampire on a stake ou twhen the sun is rising. He goes to SCREAM. In total agony as bits of flesh are literally burning away over in what's almost mutant hellfire. "NO, DAMN YOU!"
    He screams, even as rapidly as he goes to vanish and portal away as he's being melted, vaporized.. Tabitha's psionic overload giving him a massive seizure as the room would shake from the disrupted telepathic energy erupting off him in a catastrophic biological collapse. And the -crack- of his respirator falls down, the tubes and metal of it shattering from the impact, melted down to the mold.
    And Jubilee is at the side of Monet, who is collapsed over onto the ground sobbing, "Tell me where they are. Please.. Tell me where they are." And is in a state not much better than the rest of them.
    Tabitha is back in her body and healed. Jubilee has had her 'eww he tastes like cooties' moment. Berto has his trauma coming back to the forefront but it's as a strength. Josh is being used as a video game healer. Noriko has been saved by the cursed not wearing the yellow trenchcoat that everyone automatically thinks she is girl.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation spits another sputter of blood out from her mouth. "...Yeah, yeah, I'll tell you when I get back... and when I figure out who /they/ are," she mutters back at Monet, who is now apparently awake! Still, Jubilee shrugs once and gives Monet another couple of smacks. "Wake up, Monet," she half-heartedly says -- she can't resist -- before she leaps up and runs in some direction, following the faint smell of bananas and hair dye. It happens to take her to wherever Noriko happened to land.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto Da Costa brushes himself off and nods, "And stay out!" He sniffs, "I am going to need to get this dry cleaned. Mutant hellfire better come out of linen." Roberto walks over and picks Monet up if she lets him, "Yes, I know you had it handled, I'm sorry we interfered... and that he wouldn't tell us where they were." He will carry her to her room and place her on her bed. "You did great Monet, better than anyone could imagine."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
And for those few moments as soon as no one else is in eyeshot.. Monet clings to Roberto. Sobbing heavily, heaving. But she clings.