17372/X-Duck vs The Spanker

X-Duck vs The Spanker
Date of Scene:	16 March 2024
Location:	Back Yard
Synopsis:	Howard the Duck has some bad hombres after him. The X-Men show up in force to save their feathered friend.
Cast of Characters:	Rogue, Emma Frost, Scott Summers, Logan Howlett, Tabitha Smith, Jean Grey

---

Rogue has posed:
It is your average Friday night at Xaviers School. Some of the students have been organizing a camping night out at the camp grounds on the north western side of Breakstone lake. They had collected a number of students ranging through the grades, to all go forth and enjoy the wild night of making campfires, roasting good food, and telling stories. The main event of the night was the visitor to the school, Howard. Howard was quickly becoming a favorite guest of all time, being that he was a wise cracking duck, with an attitude and seemingly endless wild stories of his remarkably similar, and wildly different, home world...

A few of the faculty were to oversee the camping night, while helping to setup the tents, the campfires, and all the trappings of a fun night out.

Some of the kids had gone on a hike down the well traveled trails that surround the lake, and with them they had taken Howard to show him around, maybe introduce him to some of Earth's ducks along the way. A perfectly healthy, and fun night, this was going to be!

Until mayhem struck...

Some of the younger kids, Sophomore and Freshman aged, who'd gone on the hike were now running back toward the campsite, with a few headed on back toward the school itself. They're openly screaming bloody murder, with all of them yammering over one another. Some shouting 'People with guns!' others 'Aliens are here!' and a nerdy kid exclaiming 'They're after Howard!'

Meanwhile:
Somewhere in the forest, heavy breathing foreshadows a tense chase scene. A big duck foot splashes down in mud, before the feathered friend of Xaviers School falls down on to his hands and knees, a terrified look on his face! He pushes himself up again, and rushes in to the underbrush, aimlessly trying to escape something, or someone.

A moment after vanishing behind some foliage, a pair of figures step through the forest, only paces behind the duck. Dressed in mish mashed armor, straps, and even rolled up chains, the tattoo covered duo smirk, as one calls out. "Ducky! Get back here! We got a lotta credits ridin' on your head!" The female hunter shouts in to the forest, as she raises a gun up, and fires off a blue bolt of energy in the direction she'd last seen the duck go!

Emma Frost has posed:
The sound of things rushing through the underbrush doesn't get Emma Frost's attention as she's having to deal with hiking, which (ugh) has so many things in her expensive outfit that she'll need to have it torched to make sure she doesn't risk getting.. Right until she hears 'people with guns' and she's on alert.

MOving to rapidly pass along a telepathic warning to the students, the other teachers, and pass along the alert as far as she could. Then there's a shfit as she goes to diamond form, stalking ahead to put herself between the sounds of fighting and her student charges.

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott was aware of the camping trip, because he was typically aware of everything going on around the grounds whether it involved him or not, so hearing the sudden return prompted him to sit bolt upright and turn his head in the direction of the commotion. He sets aside a book - 'Men Without Women' - and rises to his feet. In a moment he's out the back door, watching as the kids rush back from the woods.

"Stop, which way - " he begins to ask, when the noisy 'zap' of a firearm draws his attention. He takes off at a run into the woods.

He's not exactly prepared for a fight. He's not wearing shoes, for one thing. He's wearing his ruby quartz-lensed glasses rather than his visor. His clothing consists of a t-shirt and jeans. This is not the weather for it, but it doesn't seem to slow or stop him as he rushes quickly towards the sounds of fighting.

Logan Howlett has posed:
Camping trips and babysitting.

Logan is out in the woods, keeping an eye on the kids without letting them see him keep an eye on them. It's part of survival strategy and self reliance program... Sure, it's fair to say they know he's watching, but out of sight, out of mind, and they can say they're doing all of this on their own.

The sounds of shouting hits him almost as quickly as the unfamiliar scent of the armed intruders. With his eyes narrowed, a tanktop over bluejeans, hiking boots, and his wicker cowboy hat, Logan is on the hunt... With six claws extending out from his curled fists...

It's Scott whom he comes upon first. "Scooter." Lip curling, spoken quietly, he extends his fist out in the direction she can smell the duck and the hunters. "This way." A glance back, "Kids okay?"

Tabitha Smith has posed:
One of the residents of the school, being that of the horse stables is not actually a horse but is in fact a donkey.

Jerome Badonk Smith, the X-Donk. He's not a mutant though, he's just an ordinary, if really cleaver donkey.

It's his mom's that are mutants though. One of them being Tabitha Smith, also going by Boom-Boom that had brought her grey furred hoofie boy to the campout. Mostly by bringing a bucket of carrots, and lighting the camp fires as the sky darkened. Jeans and a cropped yellow XAVIER"S tank top along with spiky collar cuffs and belt. The 'Barbiepunk' blonde rolling her eyes as soon as some kids come in with trouble. Sure she could have used her telepathy to know ahead of time but that'd be work.

Jerome gets a pet and some random kid is handed the carrots bar one of her own held in her mouth like a cigar. "Jerome honey, watch the kids!" she asks and hugs the burrow before she starts doing a sweep for intruders. <<It was gonna be such a chill night. Maybe we should let the kids go HAM on these mooks. They deserve to let loose every once in a while outside the danger Room.>>

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean is not down at the campsite supervising. The worst thing for a fun student outing meant to teach independence is having the Headmistress there looming over things! Plus, it's the sort of thing Logan lives for. He's in charge!

Rogue HAS been helping, since she's a rough outdoorsy sort when she wants to be, but at the moment she's back at the house doing a resupply. It may be a camping trip but the pantry is never far away... which is where Jean runs into her, in the kitchen.

"I think we have a whole other big bag of marshmellows in the pantry if you want to bring those down," she suggests. "Though we're going to need to stock up at the wholesale place again soon." Xaviers goes through food at a pretty crazy rate!

It's this anodyne domestic scene that the commotion interrupts.

While she's not supervising in person, she has been keeping a loose 'eye' on things. Well, forehead? It's easy enough to take the occasional moment to feel the general emotional 'mood' of the area without prying on individual thoughts. So that general panic is loud, even at a distance.

Jean reacts with a 'what is this time?' sort of look. "Seems like our new Duck friend has acquaintances. Of course he does. You wanna go check? Logan's down there, should be alright."

Still, she's not so jaded or blase about alien nonsense, despite dealing with a lot of it, to actually let it pass. She probably bumps into Scott on the way out. "Want a lift down?" Because she's taking a shortcut, taking off from the patio to make a more crows-flight path down toward the campsite.

The psi comms come on reliably. <<Logan? You got an eye on what's going on?>>

Rogue has posed:
There are roughly 20 students who seem to be participating in the camping event tonight, though a number of the older students are just coming and going from it, as they seem to be looking for places to smoke stuff, or makeout with each other. Thus those who are directly involved is a bit fuzzy, but really with things as up in the air as they are, everyone could be at danger here tonight.

At the small grove that Logan and Scott meet up in, and Jean is descending toward, Howard bursts out from behind the thick bushes, with his hands up in the air, and a few feathers floating around in the air beside him. His eyes are open wide, and his duck form is covered in mud. "They're trying to kill me!" The duck shouts, terror on his voice. He rapidly begins to waddle toward the two men in front of him, quick to try and get behind them!

From the same line of trees, the two gun toting, grunge looking, figures step out in to view. One is a deep red skinned with a bald head, his skin textured like that of a lizard, and his eyes yellow like the sun. The second is a woman with a dark purple mohawk, tattoos covering her body that are exposed from her revealing leather outfit, the pictures of the tattoos actually animated against her pale white skin, shifting and morphing in to different pictures. She's toting a big pistol weapon, aimed up as she comes out of the shrubs, while the red skinned man is holding a silver and black rifle.

Both of them aim toward Howard, and inadvertantly toward Scott and Logan now.

"Get back here, Duck." The red skinend lizard man growls out, as the mohawk adorned woman beside him just grins at the two men. "Greetings unto you, Humans." She says, her voice like gravvel.

Back at the house, Rogue sets her backpack of goodies down, and is quick to rush back out of the kitchen. She takes flight, headed toward the campgrounds east of where the grove with the meeting is developing.

"We want the duck, if you don't mind." The pale skinned woman with the tatts exclaims, her gun given a flick of her thumb, which causes its black metal surface to gleam across the edges with a fresh charge of energy.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would walk ahead towards the duo, her body shifted to organic diamond fearlessly. Metaphorically and literally - her emotions were incredibly repressed while she was in this form. "There are children here that your antics are endangering. This is also private property on which you are intruding. You are also threatening a guest at our residence. This is a school. And for many of these children, your actions are an all too horrid reminder of the lives which they hvae been forced to live to which they have come here for a place of safety. This is a warning, and I am giving this justification up front."

She's now out of the telepathic chain while in her diamond form, unable to send or receive mental impulses. "The others will be here and will be much less willing to parley than I will. So consider this your warning on the matter. Stand down and depart within the next several seconds or the others will be -putting- you down." Emma goes to stride forwards, if at all possible trying to put herself in the line of fire between the duck and the Fudds.

Scott Summers has posed:
"Shaken up, but fine," Scott answers Logan in that same, straight-backed and curt way that he seems to affect both on and off mission, "Howard's still out here, though. May be stragglers. Keep an eye out."

He's got respect enough for the Wolverine's abilities to know he'll sense anyone in danger long before Scott does. He'll never admit it, but that doesn't mean he doesn't accept and acknowledge it.

<<I'm going to assume for your sake that's an attempt at humour, Boom-Boom,>> says Scott through the telepathic relay that suddenly comes to life, <<The students aren't here to be soldiers. Keeping them safe is priority no matter how much they want to get involved.>>

He pauses, glancing up towards the approaching form of Jean a moment before Howard emerges from the bushes and his pursuers come after. He stands stalwart, one hand raised to his temple warily as they greet them. He listens to them both talk, putting on their polite airs. Emma is even giving them a diplomatic warning.

Then, with the faintest flick of his wrist, he tips his glasses down along his nose. A three-foot wide burst of crimson energy lances through the air, catching the pale hunter in the chest and throwing her back into the trunk of a tree with the crack of splintering wood and the clatter of brittle branches from falling on high. He makes a move to push Howard behind him with his free hand.

"No."

Logan Howlett has posed:
<"Kids are on the way back to the mansion."> Logan thinks back to Jean's inquiry, adjusting his hat upwards with the end of his fingers. A nod to Scott, turning towards the mallards scent with a jut of his chin in the general direciton he smells the guest and the two individuals acosting him. "Two." Pointing, leading Scott, and now Jean once she arrives, towards the Duck standoff.

The Wolverine's upper lip snarls away from his teeth when the tattooed woman speaks. "Here for the duck..." A long, low, growl. A caged animal just waiting for someone to unhook the leash. "You picked the wrong yard, bub." Nose curling, eyes turning towards the whatever he's smelling. "Better be an army.. you'll need'em."

Burly shoulders roll and he stalks towards the woman, wrists jerking down, claws slicing out from betwixt his knuckles. <"There's more comin'. I smell'em. Watch the mansion. They aint here for us, but they look like they'd use the kids as bargainin' chips.">

"Last chance to leave with everything still attached."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Look, Tabby is one who knows Game recognize Game. So the woman with the revealing outfit does get a grin when the aliens make themselves known. "Ohmagahd I love your outfit!" Tabby has to give her that.

<<What? Its not like when we were kids. My first aliens were brood. And none of us had adult supervision.>> she points out. There might be a huge grin despite the fact that really, that whole thing was absolutely terrifying.

Along with the kids, Jerome is heading back with them to keep them safe. This leaves the grownups. And Tabitha. To get their mean on. "Yeah look, it's clearly Rabbit Season, and what the old guys are trying to say is. 'Get off our lawn!'."

Jean Grey has posed:
In circumstances like these, priority #1 is always the students (sorry Howie!). En route, Jean starts doing a psionic head-count, finding their minds and speaking to each of them in her 'serious voice,' and then focusing directly for them to answer: <<Sound off everyone. If you're near the school, go inside. Otherwise, find the nearest teacher, or stay with other students if there isn't one. If you're separated, stay still someone will come to you.>> Fortunately, with Logan in charge, it's a lot less chaotic than it could be.

All of this is taught and practiced; other schools have fire drills, Xaviers has 'what to do when aliens, robots, or paramilitary weirdos invade the school'-drills. Of course, there's a few students who ignore it all and continue making out in the bushes.

But it seems like everyone is mostly accounted for, with the threat, whatever it is this week, clearly more focused on their new visitor. Once she gets an eye on the commotion below, she drifts downward, righting herself before she touches the ground. "Uh, hi. Yes, we're humans, which already raises some questions since, well, I'm going to take a wild guess that you two aren't from Duckworld." Jean is a smart cookie, you see! "So maybe we can start with introductions?"

They, nonetheless, have demands. And Scott rejects them. Let's call it, 'good cop, bad cop.' Or cops, if we're being honest.

Still playing the pacifist herself, Jean touches her temple, and the fancy space-guns jerk from their hands and start floating through the air. Reduce the pew-pew options before things escalate further. "Please. Can we try talking like adults? On Earth, taking people into custody with guns usually requires some paperwork to go with it. So why don't you explain who you are, why you're here, and why or on what authority you're threatening our guest."

Rogue has posed:
At the Campsites to the east:

Rogue touches down, her own straw cowgirl hat adjusted upon her head, as she scans what remains of the students who were preparing the site for a night of simple outdoorsy fun. What she finds are a number of kids who burst out of the bushes and rush toward her, doing the same thing of talking over one another. She gathers up some of it, used to kids at this point of her teaching career. "There's apparently a buncha these guys." Rogue says through the mind-link. "I'm here by the lake if ya need support. I'll keep a watch out here."

Back at the Grove:
The pale skinned woman with the animated tatts, smirks over at Emma. "Nice speech, Diamond Boobs. But we're on the clock here. this is just a job. Get outta our way, and the job will be over quick."

She turns her eyes back toward the trio of Scott, Logan and Jean, her gun leveling toward them. "Nice hair, red. But we're just doin' what we were hired to do.. So then, Duck. Get over h---"

Scott blasts her. Her body goes flying backward in to one of the trees, before rebounding off of it and in to a shrub!

The red skinned lizard man, shifts his yellow eyes around, before he hisses loudly. "Duck world? Duckworld... Mmm... I go there when I'm hungry, yes." He says, his rifle pumped, and raised up. "You made a big mistake, Pinky."

From the north, over the trees, large objects rumble in to view, and descend down toward the ground. Heavy vehicles, floating through the sky, as five of them come down toward the grove's grass. Each one mounted by a similarly dressed ruffian, ready for business, save for one.

One of the five, is heavily armored, his face masked behind a glossy black mirror. He steps up from his bike, casting one foot over the body of the heavy piece of alien technology, and steps down off of it on to the grass, leaving the bike to gently bob up and down in the absence of his weight. Following suit, the four other rough riders also dismount their vehicles, each one pulling a weapon off their person, or off a mount on the side of their space bike...

The big man in the full suit of armor, steps forward, the mirror reflection of his mask shining the figures of Xaviers crew back at them, some 20 yards apart.

Through a filtered vocalizer, this huge armored man speaks. "Howard. Submit."

He suddenly thrusts his right hand out, causing a violet light to shine brightly, and extend like a whip-chain! The chain sizzles through the air, passing right through Scott's body, as it wraps around Howard's small frame! With a scream from Howard, he throws up his muddy hands, whilst being pulled toward the armored man 20 yards away.

"It's the Spanker!" He shouts, his eyes desperately looking toward his new friends. "Help!"

The large armored man's left hand drops down, and unfolding from its gloved grasp is a long metal paddle, the suddenly bursts in to illumination with an energy charged glow.

Equally flashing in to presence around the armored figure, a bubble dome of prtective energy shielding snaps in to place around 'The Spanker'.

The four other guards step around to flank their boss, while the red skinned lizard opens fire on Scott! "This is for Jez!" He shouts in a rough voice.

Emma Frost has posed:
The red lizard has Emma's attention. The woman that ahd just threatened her would have had it but Scott had just treated her like she was the goal in an air hockey arena, so Emma's just left over with the nearest threat that had spoken to her. "Time's up." The others were here and the melee was going full force. The Spanker.. Well, Emma had certainly heard stranger nom de guerres. And the being seemed like more o fa threat than merely someone with a completely ridiculous name and gimmick. Emma goes to stomp forwards towards the red skinned lizard. She would smile over at the woman that Scott had just blasted into the bush. "Lovely to be appreciated." Taunting in her Boston accented English.

Any energy blasts went her way would simply deflect off her invulnerable body. She goes to calmly walk over towards him, her fist raised up and over as she heads towards the Gorn. But, alas she is no Kirk that is able to improvise a gunpowder trebuchet with items in her immediate vicinity. So the best she can do is try and smash him hard over in the snout with a fist. Not having the best idea as to hsi physical parameters, her strike is a bit more restrained.

She speaks over the comms rather than the telepathic network <<We'll need to know who their employer is. Otherwise we'll have to deal with more of them in the future.>> Because all one failed group of hunters meant was that they weren't going to be paid. <<And if they are mercenaries, their services may be available for retaliation.>>

Scott Summers has posed:
<<We weren't kids,>> Scott answers flatly. If there's more to it, he doesn't waste time conjuring it to mind. When Jean disarms them, he doesn't move to attack again. His shot was more a warning than anything else, enough to hurt but hardly the sort of destructive force his optic blasts can muster when he wants to.

His hand remains near his temple, however, and there's no mistaking his willingness to let fly once more should the situation call for it. He lets the others do the talking, however. He's a combat leader, and this isn't combat. Not yet, at least.

Then the whip passes through him to ensnare Howard, prompting Scott to turn swiftly on his heel and try to grab the duck-man to no avail. His eyes narrow behind the crimson lenses of his glasses. He hears what Howard calls him, which prompts the look of determination to disappear from his face for a second replaced by one of confusion.

And I thought Magneto was a stupid name ... Scott thinks to himself, not allowing that thought to be broadcast to the wider telepathic collective.

When the lizard man starts blasting, Scott dives behind the cover of a tree. The blast strikes the wood, sending splinters into the air that dig out small lacerations in the bare skin of his arms and face. His glasses are mercifully whole, and they're the first thing he checks.

<<Flank them,>> he commands through the telepathic conduit, <<Pull what you can from their heads, Emma. They've forfeited any psionic courtesy they were owed.>>

Now in full battlefield commander mode, Scott is already moving towards the edge of the clearing to use the other trees as cover. His glasses dip down again, ricocheting the blast off the ground in a cloud of muddy clumps to catch one of the guards in the chin like a long-distance uppercut.

<<Logan, attack pattern x-ray,>> he broadcasts to the Wolverine, hoping he's been paying attention to the intra-office memos.

Logan Howlett has posed:
Alright, brownie points to Scott for blasting that tattooed bitch back in line.

There is likely to be a fistbump later.

For now, there's more of the mercenaries showing up and one of them is called 'The Spanker'. With energy chains. Even if Logan had a sense of humor, which he doesn't (at least not right now), that's for more witty people to handle in the heat of the moment. A bit of negotiation fodder for the diplomatic amongst them to wield, not unlike a paddle.

The red skinned lizard opens fire on Scott, with Emma already positioning herself to take most of the blasts on the diamond bossom, but those rogue shots that pass her by catch the stout Wolverine positioning himself betwixt the field commander and the shooter. One in the shoulder, he jerks back and snarls, another in the chest that almost knocks him off his feet.. They're healing even before he's moving. Rushing at the 'Spanker' at a full charge, but the shielding comes up before he can get his claws in that armored bastards face.

Attack pattern X-Ray.

Logan hits that field and bounces off, but adjusts as he rolls, and comes back up running. Not for the Spanker, but for a tree near him. Swiping his claws out when one of Scott's optic beams passes near him. It hits the adamantium and catches the tree trunk with a spray of splinters that weakenes the structural integrity enough that when Logan shoulder slams into it, it's coming down with a crack and groan. Falling down towards the Spanker, who is now presented with an option: Be smashed by tree or let loose of the Chain.

"Your name is stupid."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
<<Hey, Jean! I am not the cause of this interstellar incident! I want this on record!>> Boom-Boom demands over the mind link. If a voice could feel emphatic. But as the fighting starts and Tabby's eyes lock onto the vehicles.

Those are going to need some attention and she's got just the ticket.

Plasma, she has highly explosive volatile plasma at her psionic control.

So as she gets her flank on she tries to move though bushes and around any trees for cover looking for the first best shot she can get, lining it up and charging a dense baseball sized orb, glowing nigh purple with all that heat and condensed force before she lines up and finger guns at her target. "Tick... tick... tick..."

BOOM!

The fun part will be seeing is she needs to dial up the blasts. Hopefully where Emma, Scott, and Logan aren't in range of catching wreckage either. That one could wreck some hefty armor made on earth.

"Seriously, there's clearly some lost in translation thing going. Spanker is not an intimidating name on this planet. Unless it's ironinic!" she yells clearkly agreeing with Logan's opinion.

Jean Grey has posed:
Oh, and there's more of them. Jean gives an audible, perhaps somewhat melodramatic sigh. "Well, I tried." She really did!

That said, the whip trick is definitely a new one, and she's unqualified to even start to explain. Shades of Kitty Pryde, maybe, and yet it's still substantial enough on the other side? It's imaginative. Also, Howard seems to know the guy.

Also also: "The SPANKER? What is even happening."

While Jean's combination of awed confusion and frustrated annoyance form a bit of a distractive force, Scott quickly jumps back into serious mode, calling the shots for an immediate plan of action. And she very much leaves that to him. Between him and Logan, they're not short on expertise. Nor on firepower with Tabitha joining in. With both brute force and tactical precision covered, her attention remains on that dimension of the conflict they don't seem to have a direct answer to:

While it is rarer to see her telekinetic ability exercised to such a degree that it becomes directly observable (at least when she's not in orange fire mode), here, it does manifest, in the less hostile pink-purple of crackling exotic forces. With her hand still on the side of her head, she stretches her hand out toward the chain, and the energy reaches out for it as well, then feels backward toward the individual generating it, in his little bubble.

"I'd really prefer you let go of him... or when I figure out how that thing works, I'm definitely going to break it. And it looks expensive."

Rogue has posed:
The red skinned lizard looks unto Emma with his shining golden eyes. He takes the punch, his head snapping to the side, then snapping right back to glare at the diamond girl. He extends his forked tongue, and runs it along the sides of his mouth, out over its edges, as he seems to be grinning toward the Bostonian Bombshell. "I like..." He hisses, before suddenly lunging toward Emma, his mouth opening wide as he attempts to wrap his jaws around her neck! Look out, Emma. The muscley lizard man wants to give you a hicky!

Tabitha's bomb goes off on the corner of the bikes that flew down from above. It catches two of them, causing them to burst in to explosive balls of fire, that rumble loudly across all of Westchester. When they burst, one of the four henchmen are taken by surprise, causing them to drop to the ground, while the other three standing all suddenly go invisible. Where once they were, now they are not... though blurs of motion can be somewhat seen, possibly indicating motion...

From the bushes behind Tabitha, the tatted up woman suddenly reappears, she jumps at Tabitha's back, her intention to wrap on to Tabitha like a spider-monkey, and take her down in to the bushes for either a make-out session, or a fight. Definitely a fight though, Tabi, don't get your hopes up too high!

Scott and Logan's efforts pay off, to some degree, as the chain is suddenly wipped away from Howard, and up toward the tree that was falling right toward where the Spanker stood, covered in his translucent shield bubble. His chain-whip ensnares the tree, holding it up in the air, before tossing it off toward the side, right toward where Jean stands, commanding her brain power, to keep the chain from returning to grasp Howardd!

Instead, the glowing violet energy of the long tendril of strange power, just hovers in air, with jean manipulating parts of its links, each one a metal loop just hovering inside of the energy beam, independently spinning on their axis' with them twisting and turning to fight back against Jean's mind power!

The tree hurtles through the air, its branches swirling and sweeping toward the Phoenix!

Howard clutches at the earth, scrambling toward Scott, calling out for the shoeless man. "Help me! Don't let the Spanker get close! He'll send you to---!" Something suddenly picks Howard up off the ground, a blurry figure grasping around the Duck, simply hoisting him in to the air...

At the Lake campsite:
Rogue paces, a gaggle of children around her now, as she-- and they-- hear the combat taking place to the west. With her back to the water, her eyes on the western tree line, she huffs out a sigh. "Okay. You guys hang tight here, I'm gonna go---"

Rogue's words are cut off, as a giant metal claw snaps out of the lake's water, wraps around her body from behind, and yanks the Belle right off the shore, and back in to the lake's watery interior!

out of the greenery, two more mercs arrive, smiling at the children, as they pat their weapons.

The kids all collectively scream at the same time!

Emma Frost has posed:
Scott's isntructions to Emma go unresponded to as she tries to avoid being eaten. Hopefully he'll understand that the tactical parameters have put her over in a place where she can't immediately follow orders. Even as she goes to brace herself as the lizard goes to bite down on her.. And likely has his teeth shatter upon her form.

"Wretched thing. I'll take the cost of this outfit out of your hide. Actually.. That sounds like a lovely idea. Here on Earth there's a fashion concept called lizard sole boots. I can make you one. Or a throw rug." Emma's voice is sadistically unfeeling, even as she moves to try and strike out with a fist towards her attacker once more, going to try and catch him by the neck to start to squeeze.. Other hand going over to try and brace him by the shoulders to hold him off. Any sort of strikes he would get in on her hopefully taken by diamond frame. Of course, her expensive outfit, already having gone through the paces thanks to the woodland excursion, is going to be needing something worse than fire. THrown into a volcano maybe?

Scott Summers has posed:
Yes, the Spanker is a terrible name but there'll be plenty of time for mocking the strange interstellar huntsman later once they beat his ass. Well, he's sure someone will. His fellow X-Men seem full of quips and jibes today.

If they've got time to think up witty one-liners, they've got time for a few extra scheduled group tactical exercises. He makes a mental note to arrange those later. If you've got time to lean, you've got time to prepare for battle against the forces of villainy.

His eyes had been fixed on the Spanker and the battle of wills with Jean, but when Howard rushes to him he glances down in time to watch the duck get plucked skyward. He immediately turns his attention skyward, squinting to try and make out the ducknapper against the night sky.

The screams from the lakeside snap him out of it, and he glances over his shoulder in that direction. A pointed look is given to Logan, followed by a solemn nod, and then his attention once more turns to the sky.

His glasses dip down again, a bolt of crimson lancing through the air as he tries to strike whatever it ab-duck-ting Howard before it can get too much altitude. It's right about now he wishes they had more people who could fly, or at least people with telekinesis who weren't otherwise occupied.

Even as he's focusing on the air, Scott proves that his eye beams are not the only thing he has going for him in a combat situation. As one of the guards approaches him, thinking the mutant distracted, Cyclops' fist snaps to the side to drive an exaggerated right cross across the guard's jaw and send him thudding to the ground with a gurgle of pain.

<<Howard's airborne! I don't think it's one of ours.>>

Logan Howlett has posed:
Invisible visually, but Logan can still smell t hem.

Which isn't immediately apparent when he doesn't leap at the first blurry motion that passes by him. His attention is on the spanker, but then, it's not. It's whipping around towards the sound of collective screaming in the distance. The sudden arrival of two, familiarly unfamiliar, prey (because they are very quickly becoming brey), changes everything. <"kids in danger.">

There's a look shared with Scott, but he's already moving when the order is given. Howard isn't his problem... if they take the Duck, that's inconvenient, sure, but he'll sleep tonight... If those kids get hurt? No, he wont ever sleep again. With a snarl, the stout feral turns and runs into the woods, headed in the direction of the camp grounds. Very few people know these woods as well as Logan. Every fallen stump, every upturned root. The beast is loose.

He bursts out of the woods line on the right flank of the two mercs. Surprisingly silent for a man running at full speed through the under brush, he collides with the right most of the two gunmen and stabs both sets of claws in, one through the back and the front of, of the merc's shoulder. His knees are up, but his weight shifts, it drags the gunman forward and around, with Logan curling into an impromptu Judo throw that sends him flying right into his companion. Knocking them both off into lake.

Logan is back up, on one knee, between the pair, if they dare to stand up, and the children. His attention diverts to the kids, "Go to my secret place... take the trails I showed you." He reaches up and takes his hat off, slides it on one of the older girl's head, "You're in charge. I'm right behind you." A wink, a grin.. and then it's gone when he looks back towards the pair. Snarling. Head turning side to side to pop his neck.

"Let's dance, bub."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Twofer! Tabby will take that. though as the bikes drop and their riders are on the ground, the rest get all cloaked up. <<Bikers cloaking, gonna try and ping them all psychic!>> trick is whether any of them have the sort of defenses against telepathy the Shi'ar teach in kindergarten.

Shame she doesn't get to do that. Yet. It's kind of difficult to multitask when you suddenly have a tattooed alien woman jumping and tackling you down to the ground and pinning her. "See if you were the Spanker, I'd be all for that. Me, my name is Boom-Boom! and you saw what I just did?" Tabby might keep ft and pretty strong for her size but she isn't superhuman like the other Southern Gal.

But she can make up for it in other ways.

Like floating balls of plasma all around the pair of women fighting on the ground.

Tabitha doesn't need her hands to boom after all.

Jean Grey has posed:
Big tree incoming!

While the tree itself is not really a challenge to a woman who moves things with her mind, it shows a certain tactical understanding on the part of this 'Spanker' fellow. Much in the same way that Jean's effort to take control of his weapon forced him to relinquish the duck, he makes her split her attention and focus if she chooses to defend herself.

Which of course she does. The whole thing, from Logan and Scott sending it at him in the first place, to him throwing it at Jean, and her throwing back, plays out like some violent hand of Uno. REVERSE! And she sends it back hard.

That's what you get for not choosing the peaceful talk-y solution when she offers it!

However, this does serve to make her relinquish the battle on the chain. And, in this case, she doesn't attempt to resume fighting for control of it. Nope. Instead, she turns and leaps airborn, flying away.

"I'm going for Rogue and the students by the lake."

And that's where she goes! <<Rogue? Where are you?>> It's rhetorical, somewaht, since she can feel her mind. With Logan popping out, she leaves the (very unfortunate) goons to him, and instead dives straight for the water, crackling with energy.

Rogue has posed:
At the grove:
Emma's punch to the lizard is met with a satisfing crunch of squishy lizard hide. It causes the creature to take a step back, his pointed teeth not sinking past the shining layer of diamonds. He looks surprised by this, before he just hisses again, his right hand coming up to wipe at the side of his mouth. "Mmmm, I like you." He says, before he sees the tree flying back toward his people. He turns away from Emma then, and rushes toward their aid!

The tree rolls straight toward the Spanker, and the invisible guards flanking him. With his glowing chain released, the towering armored man whips his chain up, snapping it out toward the tree, only to have it wrap around one of the larger branches. He doesn't stop the tree from coming in toward him, but he does skip it up in the air, causing it to spiral over him and his people, chunks of falling tree bark, leaves, and otherwise just raining down upon the Spanker's shield bubble, causing it to sparkle from the impact of forest debris upon the protective case around him.

The tree lands off to the west, a mess of broken branches, and shattered forest pieces.

Tabitha is locked in a close quarters fight like few others the blonde has likely been in before, with the pale skinned woman seemingly having some measure of advanced strength above base Human levels. It allows the one-mohawked woman to get the upper hand, ending up sitting on top of Tabitha, with her hands going to wrap around Tabi's throat. But the bombs are soon noticed, which just has the woman grinning down at Tabitha. She leans down to press her nose toward Tabi's own. "You don't have the balls to blow us both up, you bloated Qenzi!" What the hell is a Qenzi!? She just keeps choking Tabitha!

Scott's kinetic blast beam hits the invisible guard, causing him to scream out as he topples to the ground, unable to float off with Howard, leaving Howard to free fall... right down toward where the Spanker has just avoided the rolling tree from flattening him and his people. He sees the Duck land, and stalks toward him, his left hand extending the crackling energy-covered paddle weapon. He raises it up, as his shield momentarily opens up to give him the ability to strike at Howard's vulnerable Duck-butt, served up on his little hands and knees!

At the Lake campsite:

Logan burst from the trees, finding the two men summarily shocked by Jean's arrival, distracted enough that Logan slams his claws right in to one of the two, before sending them both in to the water's edge. One is clearly dead, while the other rises up from the water. he sees his green skinned companion deceased and leaking blood, and turns to look to Logan. Producing spiked gauntlets, the big bald blue skinned man rushes Logan, shedding water, and letting out a gutteral scream! His spiked gauntlets move to engage in a all out fist-acuffs fight with the Wolverine!

Jean hits the lake with a powerful stride, sending up a splash that showers the shore closest to where the Belle had been taken. What she finds is Rogue beneath the water, wrapped up in one of the giant metal tentacles of a large half-machine, half organic monster! It lashes out at Jean's form, descending in to the water, as Rogue is frantically trying to break free from the tentacle fingers squeezing her throat. Jean would know all to well that Rogue may be invulnerable to most things, but breathing is still a requirement for her to stay alive!

The under water monster swipes two metal tentacles at the Phoenix, armored up, with its crimson glowing eyes locked on to the Headmistress!

Emma Frost has posed:
All right, she's being disengated. Emma sends a quick thanks towards Scott before shifting back to normal, even as her fleshy bits are barely covered over now by the threadbare remnants of her outfit. With that done, she goes to try and concentrate and moves to try and get whatever data she can pull from the brains of the attackers. She's not going to try and read the mind of the so-called Spanker yet. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Emma goes to focus, trying to spread out her consciousness to get quick dribs and drabs of data fi seh can. Going for quick attempted scans rather than breaking ones. Reading the minds of aliens is always tricky, and it's not something to push on in the midst of a fight. In a firefight if she gets distracted she's very likely to end up with a rather humiliating energy blast through her and require Joshua to regrow bits of her. Never dignified. She focuses, trying to grab what she can quickly.

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott's eyes also follow Jean for a moment as she flies away, setting off to help Logan by the lake as well. This leaves the amount of X-Men on the ground fighting the Spanker a little short-handed, but that's nothing he hasn't experienced before.

"You're gonna regret making her fly away," Scott tells the Spanker, squaring his shoulders, "She has to hold back when she's in a fight or else she'll crack the planet in half. Me? I don't have that problem."

<<Boom-Boom, Emma,>> he telepathically calls out, apparently he's still not quite amiable to calling the Bostonian by her chosen codename, <<Get clear.>>

But then Howard's falling from the sky, and Cyclops scrambles to act. He dives to the ground, throwing both arms out in front of him. The Duckworldian lands there as Scott falls to the ground, his fall sufficiently slowed. But in the process, Scott's jaw strikes the dirt and his glasses crack and topple off his head into the mud.

He lies there for a second, having pulled Howard close to his chest with his jaw clenched and his eyes firmly squeezed shut. Then, turning his face upward towards the Spanker, he opens them wide.

The blast is everything he can muster. Several feet wide, striking the Spanker with full force. Enough to blast the trees, plants, and rocks to splinters. The noise and light briefly making it feel like noon in the little clearing. It's the kind of blast that leaves a forty feet long trench of churned earth where it struck and little else. It's going to take a while to regrow.

Logan Howlett has posed:
The Pheonix splashes into the lake and rains water down upon the Wolverine and the blue skinned merc like a torrent. Both snarling at each other... Logan didn't want to kill anyone in front of the kids, had tried not to even when he initially stabbed the first of the two mercs, but now that they're gone? "Well?" He growls, water dripping from the ends of his shaggy hair as he circles, claws out and dripping whatever accounts of blood from the tips.

He lets the other man make the first move, coming in swinging that spiked gauntlet, just to get a measure of who he's fighting. It hits him in a muscled arm, digs into flesh, and stops when he clanks against an adamantium humerus. Which hurts like hell, but not enough to stop the Wolverine who brings his other arm across, up into the outside of the merc's elbow, and steps forward to provide a counter point of pain compliance by bending his arm in a way that it definitely wasn't meant to bend.

A hip jams in, Logan twists, and sends the goon over him onto the ground.. A step back snicker snarling with his fangs bared. "No wonder they sent ya to pick on kids..." The goon comes up, rushing at him swinging that club, but a claw snaps up to catch it on the blunt end to slap it away. The other fist swings forward with the claws out, right for his face... so he can see them in the punch. See them retract back between his knuckles when they connect against the bridge of his nose hard enough to shatter bone. Then his forehead slamming in to make sure it's probably broken. Then a kick into the inside of his knee to knock it outward. Then an elbow.

Then a shove.

"Get up." Logan snarls.. A deep growl. Just this side of feral.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Quenzi? Tabby might just have to probe to find out what that is.

After she's done being pinned and choked by the stronger woman.

"I bet that sounds dirty! I like it." she breaths slowly while hands are around her neck.

It's when she's practically dared to blow them both up Tabby gets a grin on her features that could be almost as scary as say, a redheaded telekinetic switching to a red costume.

Tabby's own hands grab the tattooed alien woman's wrists. "No balls. Babe it's my goddamn power!"

Luckily for herself, she's flat on the ground. Means she doesn't have any direction to go but down. And she's well under Scott's blast even with him letting it out.

This lets her show that yes, she is game to explode herself.

BOOM!

All around the women, her blasts go off. It's loud and it's bright and if she really wanted she could have timed it to be percussive and not random so the woman can't tell what direction things are going off.

"And I get a rush out of it!" she yells in the midst of her blasting.

Jean Grey has posed:
Robot tentacles on some kind of living body? It'd be easier if it was JUST robot tentacles, maybe. Morally.

Or... maybe Jean isn't really splitting that hair while it tries to drown Rogue. At the very least, she's quite done playing nice. The claws come out immediately, and that's not some kind of metaphor: her gestures and motions, rather than directing vague telekinetic energies, now manifest the two familiar 'talons,' energy constructs that seem to have no problem whatsoever maining their 'fiery' appearance underwater. They first lash out immediately, slashing through the most apparent and nearest tentacles, whatever bars her path, before she can reach Rogue. And there, one reaches out for her directly.

For a moment, it may look equally frightening, the blazing claw closing down around the woman, ATOP the already strangling metallic grip that encases her. Yet as the talon closes, squeezes in, Rogue feels no pressure. The light show is really only the most outward expression, of what can be quite precise control. In a dozen places at once, she'll feel the coil around her throat sliced apart.

<<Breathe.>> It's still half a request, although there's that echo of power behind it. It's also counter-intuitive. Tentacles may be gone, but she's still under water, right?

Except the water is bubbling, almost boiling around her face, except without any heat. Molecules getting torn apart and re-arranged on the spot, to form breathable air. You can thank the fish piss for the Nitrogen, by the way.

While this happens, she's barely paying attention to the tentacle thing, but maybe that is again more of another - last and final - peace offering. Giving it a chance to run, while it's ONLY down a few appendages.

Rogue has posed:
At the forest grove:
Emma opens her mind up, and can touch on the minds of all the aliens still alive around them. They're minds are different from Human thought processes though, and reading it is a lot more confusing. She does pick up on panick, outright fear, from the Mercs, who did not expect this job to be nearly this challenging to deal with. Earth had a reputation for being a backwater berg, but one with really capable fighters on it. This is why the Mercs were hired to flank the Spanker on this mission... but even still, clearly they were taken by surprise.

Emma picks up on one thing that strikes her mind, from the Spanker's own muddled mind. "The Collection'? The translation is strange.

Tabitha's bombs go off, at the same time as Scott is making his grand answer to this seemingly overwhelming situation. The woman atop Tabitha is melted alive, turned to ash, and blown away in to the forest around her, and a large swath of the forest itself suffers the same fate, with a few fires already breaking out in and amongst the copse of trees around the Boom of Booms. She is freed, however, even if her clothes aren't quite as carefree perky-girl as they had been moments earlier.

As for Cyclops? He gets to Howard in time, who clutches on to the Human for his dear little life. Scott's unrestrained optic blast?

Well, have you ever seen that movie 'The Force Awakens'? Do you remember the big laser planet? When it fired off its crimson beam, that lit up the whole forest, the whole planet, and the galaxy beyond it? Scott's optic beam, without any hinderance, does damn near the same in this instance...

It tears through the ground, creating a gash across the grove's grassy floor. The red beam lances toward the Spanker, causing several more of the hovering bikes to suddenly explode from sustained damage. The Spanker himself, his shield was partially open, with the intention of spanking the duck in to submission with his energy paddle, but instead... he caught the beam from Scott's eyes, and it sent him flying backward, with his shield closing tightly around him again to avoid any further damage. The armored man vanishes inside the treeline, not far from where it was flaming from Tabitha's explosives...

At the lake:

Logan's attacks cause a strange reaction in the blue skinned brute he was fighting. The man wasn't bleeding normal blood, but instead bubbling out blue bubbles not unlike his own skin, but wet and flowing with a strange thick liquid.. it seemed to be like molten hot flesh, as it was creating a tumor-like growth upon the wounds sustained from Logan's attacks. He did rise up to his feet, however, and he grinned at the Wolverine. "Nice tricks, Zunga. I'm gonna rip those pretty little knives outta your arms, and cook some Nugro tenderws on them." He threatened, moments before the red light filled the sky, and caused him to look up, and then back toward the west...

Under the lake:
Rogue gasped in a breath of air, the bubbles providing her with oxygen, as she felt herself freed. She quickly began to ascend, needing to break the surface of the water immediately! The water is lit up by Scott's optic blast, as well, causing the surface to glimmer with a crimson shine. Beneath the surface, the strange tentacle creature is illuminated from above, its own red eyes staring at Jean, as the red glow from above gives a eerie glimpse at what the huge creature looks like, with its many arms slowly waving around in the depths of the lake.

Rogue gasps for air, her face glistening with lake water. She opens her eyes to stare up at the light...

At the mansion:
Kids faces stare out of windows, watching the light show from afar. In the driveway, a truck is parking, with Rogue's father stepping out of the cab, Jeepers landing on the ground beside him, as the pair had gone to the store to get more food for the camping. They look toward the north, toward the lake, the entire school in awe of whatever is taking place out there...

And then it all goes b

Rogue has posed:
They look toward the north, toward the lake, the entire school in awe of whatever is taking place out there...

And then it all goes black, back to normal...

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost's eyes go to flash as she gathers information from minds and focuses.. <<They're jibbering on about how someone wants our houseguest for something about a Collection. I haven't the faintest on the specifics beyond that. Apparnetly someone's taking an interest in him. We'll have to poke deeper. Also they're downright terrified and I think that they can be made to stand down and surrender. And, darling..>> This is sent over to Scott.

<<They may be somewhat ameniable to being hired for future work. Properly intimidated they might even give a substantial discount. We should charge it to Roberto. He's the one with off-planet contacts after all>> Yes, that means while Emma volunteers the idea of having haphazardly competent extraplanetary mercenaries, she's not footing the bill for it.

Scott Summers has posed:
"A collection?" Scott asks Emma out loud, with the bad guys either disintergrated or blasted off like Team Rocket there's no need for the secrecy, "I'm not so sure about hiring mercenaries, but I agree we need to look into this further."

He picks himself up from the ground. His shirt and jeans are torn and he's covered in mud and leaf litter. His eyes are still closed, and he has one free hand clasped over them. His hair has twigs in it.

"If Howard's okay," he calls out, assuming Emma and Tabby are within earshot, "Can someone get me back to the House?"

He's stiff-backed and angry about something. A casual observation will show it's the fact that he's left himself vulnerable by breaking his glasses. This is why he wears the visor on missions.

"Are Jean and Logan okay? Rogue?"

Logan Howlett has posed:
He stands up? Good...

Logan actually grins, through his feral sneer, at the tumors rupturing out the broken part of the mercs face. "You talk too much." He snorts at the threats, which are intimately not threatening at all to the Wolverine. Who moves suddenly when the red light distracts the alien, who looks away from him to the west and is rewarded for this oversight be getting a chop centered mid throat. No claws. He really hadn't meant to kill anyone, but sometimes the beast needs blood.

Blood for the blood beast.

Hong Kong Foey chop, right to the throat.

Hard.

Then a tumor covered face is being slammed down into an adamantium covered knee rising up to kiss it. A lot. Many times. Probably too many times... He's not trying to kill him, okay.

This is measured. Controlled. Frequent... but still, definitely not, life threatening amounts of slamming the mans face into his knee over and over...

And over.

But even once he's down, he leans over to check his pulse. If there's not one, it's because Logan doesn't know Alien anatomy, okay?

"Don't fuck with my kids."

Whom, he runs after. Meeting up with them at his cabin, shortly after the sky returns to black. He kneels down in front of them and looks them over, smoothing his hair back just before the girl he put the hat on rushes over to give him a hug. "Alright... hah.." A cackling laugh, pushing her out at arms length. He takes his hat, puts it back on his head and starts ruffling hair. "You all okay?" Nods. "You did good.." nod, once. Clipped. Hiding the off colored blood substance on his knuckles by wiping it off on his jeans.

"Who grabbed the marshmellows? You didn't leave the marshmellows did ya?" He's not very good at this... but he's trying.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Being underneath so many blasts, her own and Cyclops'. The woman choking Tabby just disappears like the bad guy at the end of an anime caught in an explosion.

Once the dust is cleared Tabby sits up, slowly, flexing those well earned abs as she makes sure she isn't going to get scattered to the winds. "Fight or flight. And I can't fly." she says and looks down at the tatters of her clothes. At least nothing is hanging out that shouldn't be. "I flarking hate having to do that." at least she's not happy about what happened. "Us or them." she states and wobbles a little on her own feet.

Looking around she tries a telepathic sweep for everyone. <<We dead?>> she asks out and shrugs her shoulders. "So we get inside the house, head down to the lounge and just drink. It's Margarito'clock!" she states.

Jean Grey has posed:
Staring contest with a giant tentacle monster eye? Yeah, not even on the top ten of Jean's weirdest list. And if it thinks it's going to intimidate her? Well, we'll see.

While somewhat unaware of what is going on above, only seeing the flash of light through the filter of the lake water, Rogue manages to escape, which is the important thing. But the monster doesn't leave. And well, if she needs to make the situation any more clear, what better way is there than this? Jean makes it leave.

At the water's surface, so far, there's no doubt been some splashing water, some weird bubbling, and finally Rogue's reapparance. Now it's Jean's turn.

In what is definitely not copyright infringement, she rises from the water, arms outstretched. Whatever sweater and mom jeans combo she was wearing before has long-since been replaced by her Phoenix costume, possibly without even realizing it changed. It's green, at least. Rising to hover a ways above the surface of the water, she hangs in the air a few moments.

Then the whole lake starts to bubble and boil. Again, not heat, but in this case, a combination of residual telekinetic interactions and also, uh, massive liquid displacement. Because after Jean comes up? The creature comes up. It doesn't get a say in the matter, it's full weight hauled from the water like a prize catch by a fishing boat. It can dangle or struggle if it likes, it can lash out with its tentacles (and lose them), it doesn't matter. Up, up, up it goes. Until it stops, held level to the floating Jean, so it can big weird eye stare her again if it wants.

<<When I let go, I'd like you to leave. Last offer. After that, I'm dragging you into space myself, and I'm fifty fifty if I throw you in the sun or snap off all your arms and hand you over to the Shi'ar cruiser up there. I bet you have warrants in a dozen systems.>> And then she lets it go!

Rogue has posed:
"Wait, wait, ya big goof." Howard says to Scott, as he fumbles around on the ground, picking up a pair of broken glasses, split over the nose, so the lenses are separated from one another. "Here, here..." The little Duck Man says in his New Yorker accent. He pushes them up to Scott's face, holding them over his eyes. "Gods, and I thought I got splitting headaches. You're a poster child for Tylenol, buddy." Howard looks over his shoulder toward Emma. "Hey, babe! You got some tape on ya!?" He asks, before he spies movement out of the bushes.

"Uh... guys, an' gals... I think he's still here." Howard then adds, his voice returning to a state of fear.

Out of the tree line to the west of the grove, the Spanker stands there, motionless, with his whip out at one side, his long glowing energy paddle extended to the other side. He stares right at Howard and Scott, the energy of his weapons quietly crackling like bug zappers on a busy summer night...

The bodies where Logan had been at the lake, suddenly vanish, as little lights blinked on their necks. The guards around where the bikes had been parked at the grove flash out of invisibility, then disappears in balls of white light.

And at the lake, the giant tentacle beast stares at Jean, its red eyes unmoving as the Phoenix draws him out of the water, his body shedding it back down toward the lake. Her ultimatum is given, and a second there-after the giant armored beast also vanishes in a flash of light.

The Spanker remains. Staring at Scott and Howard. His energy paddle suddenly goes dark, his whip suddenly recoils in to his gauntlet, and his shield bubble deactivates. He too disappears in a burst of white light. In the distance, to the north, the engines of a starship flare brightly, and the earth rumbles, as the vessels ascends rapidly toward the stars above.

Rogue crawls to shore, coughing up water, as people from the school come rushing out to join them. Colossus at the lead, flanked by other X-Men members. Rogue's father, along with Jeepers, dash toward the water to help the Southern Belle find her way out of the lake.

Howard, sighs with a measure of relief. He looks toward Scott, and shakes his head. "I can't stay here any more. I'm too much of a burden on you fine people... I'll, find my hat... and be on my way."