17453/Mutant Field Trip

Mutant Field Trip
Date of Scene:	10 April 2024
Location:	In and out of dimensions
Synopsis:	The Field trip does not go according to the script. The abducting and coaxing of attendees does, but everything after that hits a few potholes on the way to the mysterious destination intended to wow and amaze. Interdimensional uh-ohs catch wind of the transdimensional trip, after dodging some pesky authorities. Always trying to stay ahead of the consequences for a wild and fun future is risky. Through some valiant defense, the creatures are held off while the ripcord on the engine is pulled and the Bus comes in for a sandy landing in strange place. What sort off solutions can be found to get home, and whether the nearby saloon has something worth lingering in, are to be revealed.
Cast of Characters:	Spiral, Tabitha Smith, Talia Wagner, Negasonic, Noriko Ashida

---

Spiral has posed:
Here comes the bus. It has polka dots and really good tires.

This special charter has appeared near the parking lot of Xavier's school. Its presence may not be a complete surprise if certain students had received something in their electronic inbox. They'd have warning. They'd have a heads up. A special field trip. Nothing to the closest Zoo, which is a happy coincidence given recent troubles in the news. This one is a ~Field Trip~ and it'll just be for the day. Pinky swear. With refreshments provided and permission slips already taken care of. The email had a lot of production value. Lots of Gif's, because the youth are into flashing lights, yo. Lots of hip word-smithing, because the youth are supposed to be into that, dawg. It's almost as if the sender is desperately trying to appeal. Surely that cringeworthy pandering can't be so unaware, right?

The bus is idling, which isn't great for the environment, but the windows are down and little puffs of someone vaping in the driver's seat are giving the transportation an abstract choo-choo train aesthetic. A print-out has been taped to the inside of the front windows, facing outwards, and looks like what an old dot-matrix printer could use up a whole printer ribbon to make: FIELD TRIP. A white haired woman wearing Tennis visor hat and matching attire for a match, has her legs crossed and feet up on the dash and an arm on the steering wheel as she puffs.

Spiral has posed:
Yoink.

The first indication that something odd is going on, might be someone's eardrums popping, or that faint goose-bumpy sensation. It doesn't come with Nightcrawler's scent, BAMF or bodyslide. It comes with the sound of whispered arcane words through earbuds and a scalp massage. If one's eyes stay open, the portal envelopes and gives an IMAX experience of falling into a singularity while a few hundred disembodied pop-up ads stream like fireworks past. A brief perhaps terrifying phenomena, like passing through an broadcast executive's daydreaming mind of dollar signs and syndicated shows. But it is blessedly brief, doesn't result in people back on earth aging hundreds of years, and reality is replaced by the inside of a School bus partially occupied by a silver-grey haired driver, dressed in matching Tennis visor hat and garb who is vaping away and reclining at the front of the vehicle. A number of seats are occupied by faces familiar or not, of Xavier's helpful school for gifted youth.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabby might have seen the email, she still gets some student emails since her status is up in the air and she might actually be considering taking classes for an early education degree.

Tabitha the kindergarten teacher. Or at least mutant daycare.

But she ignored the email, just scrolling past a cursory look on her phone before she stuffed it into the pocket of her old, ripped, but still very tightfitting yellow jeans.

How she went from the hall outside her and Noriko's dorm to the bus was kind of answered when the visions went somewhere between Space Baby Incidents to needing a popup and add blocker in her brain. The rest of her bouncing into the bus, and bouncing a little after that in a red cropped XAVIER'S tank top and matching sneakers. "Wait, did I sign up for babysitting again? I wasn't expecting to be responsible adult today." she groans and sounds a little hung over.

Talia Wagner has posed:
Talia Wagner is not a student. She just lives at the mansion because, well, where else is she going to go? She got no email. What she did get was---

YOINK

The blue skinned woman apparates onto the bus, looking dazed. At least she got yoinked after putting actual clothes on. She's wearing the red leather pants and white t-shirt again. Shoes are for people with normal feet.

"What the....?"

Negasonic has posed:
"Don't worry. I think we're all irresponsible adults already," comes the glum voice from one seat of that Magic School Bus.

A Negasonic Teenaged Voice.

"I just had to come see. The email was giving serious cringe vibes, so I figured it was someone desperate setting this all up," says Negasonic.

Dressed as she was in her usual black - leather pants, trenchcoat, awesome stompy boots, fingerless gloves, and every single one of her piercings... she glances over her shoulder, looking back towards Tabitha.

"To be real, I thought it mighta been you or Jubilee setting it up," she says, upnodding Noriko.

"... was it Jubilee?" she asks her.

She furrows her brow when the Teej shows up. Did she just teleport? Maybe she did her dad thing.

"You made it onto the cringe bus," she says, scootching over to make room for the blue fuzzy responsible adult. "Need a seat or whatever?" she asks of her.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko recently got a mobile phone, which means she recently finally signed up for email, or rather finally signed into her school email, which means she drowned in a million emails. Plus all of those sign-ups she did at the mall. She never thought they would come back to haunt her.

As luck would have it, Noriko chewed through that inbox as fast as the bits and bytes would let her without shorting out her new precious. And that is how she came to actually join what might or might not have been an optional school thing. Always remembering field trips with fondness, and having missed out on a majority of her school years, Noriko is...well, hanging around, trying not to look too interested, casually holding what she thinks is her 4th smoothie.

The mutant sighs as she goes into incognito mode, which is hard to do with two metal gauntlets but she has excuses for those, so she just trudges to the back of the bus at human speed with her gauntlets jammed into her hoodie pockets before flopping down.

"What?  Me?  Organize a forced group bonding event?...or even a voluntary one?"  Noriko laughs sharply.  "I don't know if it was Jubes.  If it was, she didn't tell me anything about it."  Noriko looks like she's rolled over a sore spot and frowns slightly at the thought, which is probably unrelated to knowing about whether Jubes scheduled a field trip...right?

Spiral has posed:
The driver of the bus stretches and arches, murmering under her breath. It's more than languid, it's exceptionally indulgent, like someone on stage really going above and beyond to accentuate each action. Like she was bopping along to a song while reclining, her arms making movements, head weaving like a cobra, glancing towards those filling up the available seats. She puffs that vape like a kazoo, the scent getting sucked from the window cracked nearby. Kids make videos of this stuff, right? What's worse, is she's got enough attention spared towards whether she's pulling off the cool adult stuff.

Spiral offers a toothy grin to Tabitha, and adds in a wink. "You're off the clock Boomie. Not to worry, I got the responsibility stuff covered. Hey, mind handing out the Fannies on that seat there? See? Responsible Rita is on the case. Juice boxes and everything." The Driver inclines her head to the pile of fanny-packs (Bum Bags for those in the UK).

A pile of the indicated packs are positioned just on a free seat. Cringe factor levels increasing. One for everyone, and bulging with mystery contents of fun! How thoughtful that the fabric patterns on all are so richly Hot Topic, ranging from studded to camo to flamingo Pink and seizure inducing rainbow shimmer. Dangling from keychains on each are tiny figures, collectibles bearing a unique Dazzlin ring around their necks or waists, of some manner of franchise forgotten or esoteric. Shang-chi grip, poseable, and get uncomfortably warm to the touch if rubbed. The waist of one bears the name Acroyear.

The Driver does a quick head count and spits the vape pen out the window. A cough follows it, and a large beefy handle is pulled to haul the door closed. "We're on our way!" she croaks and guns the vehicle into motion. She's not shy about using the gas to get up to speed.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Even Tabitha isn't immune to watching Rita kick back behind the driver's seat. The blonde herself grinning back while she slips a hand into a pocket to putt a couple hair ties back and get to work putting all that blonde up into some high set twin tails, with a few wayward bangs loose but kept out of the way by her red framed, yellow tinted cat eye glasses.

Bum-packs are distributed and Tabby opens one up to start taking a peek inside. Grabbing possibly the loudest headache inducing one and clipping it loose around her waist and hips so it hangs like a gunbelt over the white spiky leather belt she already had.

"Gotta get paid to be of the clock honey!" she states back playfully while she grabs a hand rail as the bus starts to peal off.

The other ladies get a grin, she's not above enjoying the view all around her. "So uhhh, anyone remember where we be going?" she asks Nori, Ellie and Talia before she looks back to Rita curiously. "When did the school get a new bus driver? I miss my van." the poor thing still a bullet ridden wreck down by the lakeshore.

Talia Wagner has posed:
Talia does, in fact, take the offered seat, slotting in next to Negasonic. She blinks as she takes in the bus, her lips in a tight line. "I don't even know how I got here," she says with a frown. "I was walking down the hall towards my room, and the next I was forcefully dragged through," she considers her words. "Seizure Light Land, and ended up here."

When Tabby hands her the bag, she rifles through it, frowning. "Damn. If I knew I was going to get thrown on a bus, I would have found a way to fit a flask in these pants."

Negasonic has posed:
The lingering RBF that Negasonic naturally had narrows her features thoughtfully on Noriko for a long moment, her frown - black-painted lips broken up by that silver lip ring (it had an inverted cross on it today for extra edge), turning down into a frown.

"Wait," says Negasonic, picking up on the vibes in the room and not necessarily happy with what she was getting there. "You didn't mean to poof your way into this place?" she asks. She had her cell phone in one hand, her brow curling as she was handed one that looked like Lisa Frank's Revenge.

"Wait," she notes to Tabitha, looking back towards Rita.

"You go to the mansion, right?" she asks. "A friend of the teachers there or whatever?" she asks.

Not that she cared. But might be good to know if they were being kidnapped.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko finds a fanny pack that looks like if a fruit striped gum pack smashed into some Lisa Frank creatures.  It makes no sense, and in that vain, it makes all the sense.  Noriko pokes through her fanny pack as quickly as her brain gets bored.

"This is a weird group to go on a field trip...and I don't remember there being a polka dotted bus.  Must be a rental," Noriko says with a shrug.  "The driver probably came with it...I was just bored."  This seems to have recently become a favorite phrase of Noriko's.  It's her obvious explanation for how she ended up here.

"Nonononono," Noriko notices suddenly her new phone goes dark, juiceless.  "My battery died."

"Wait some people were brought here?"  Noriko sits up straighter and narrows her eyes as she stares at the driver hard, from way back there.  Then she sinks back down into her seat.  "Uh."  One develops paranoias...or, extra instincts when they've been kidnapped so many times.

Spiral has posed:
"Frenemies are technically friends!" Rita shouts over the noise of the engine. A robust archaic thing, but with a growing note of doohickeys deeper in the flooring. The smell of ozone. An electrically attuned soul might just feel the build up of incredible power within a mechanism. The interior is locked down with a protective field. "Hey, Talia, I'm sure Kurt won't have a cow, not when he hears how much FUN you had afterwards!" The bus is in motion, increasing in speed and not slowing. Even when taking turns, acceleration is the way. Traffic isn't so much a problem as the road becoming as curvey as Omega Red's retractable tentacles. If one isn't bracing or ready for it, they might even wind up in each other's laps. The bus driver raises her knees to steer the wheel while her arms gesture to raise the roof. The butt wiggle accompanies the unfurling, an optical illusion, of unholstering two more sets of limbs to help sway and pinch at the air. The six-armed Sorceress smiles as she can stop devoting energy towards her less-limbed appearance. She calls over her shoulder, "Now, sure, there may be a few stories floating around about me. I certainly dunked on a few Avengers and...maybe one of your relatives, or two, but that's cola under the bridge. Blown out of proportion."

Outside the windows the world starts to phase into a sequences of rave-worthy flashing lights, and Spiral sporting her sporty attire raises a foot to use the tip of a furred boot to jab the volume of the radio up. "There's nothing sweeter than a redemption arc after all. Hold onto your hams. You'll seeeeee." The feeling of forward motion only increases and there is no ground beneath the rolling wheels. Outside the windows, a panorama of that old Willy Wonka Tunnel of Terror rolls upon the surrounding fog bank. The famous film clip plays at a distorted and very loud volume so much that it shakes the glass windows. "Just kidding!" Spiral laughs, snaps her fingers to cease the vivid mirage and let it bleed into a watercolour mess of pixel-smear, like a television dissolving to chaotic artifacting.

Spiral's eyes glow, the bus' headlamps taking on the same blaze of magical energy as they harmonize. The byproduct being the way ahead becomes illuminated. Every blink of her eyelids shutters the old vista and replaces it with something new. What streaks past the passenger windows are the fading views of places that could be visited. Her cursed vision showing alternate places and timelines. Things that appear familiar but with varying degrees of wrongness and rightness. "No, that's technovirus...that's zambies...where in the hells...oh, that's Hell...Don't worry, we're coming up on big C's stuff! Just gotta...finesse a little, so as not to disturb. It'll be amazing. Everyone back at the Mansion will be real impressed. I hear there's a gift shop."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"I keep a couple joints in my pockets just in case." Tabby states with a grin to Talia. "Pretty much how I got here Talia. I don't smell rotten egg farts, so it wasn't Kurt. Blink and Magik use portals. And Illyana would have been coming along instead of throwing me under the bus by throwing me on the bus" she further explains.

The ride is kinda bumpy hear and there, but considering how often she's also been on the Blackbird it's a difference. Road travel is way more bumpy compared to the occasional inverted flights.

"If we are kidnapped, not our first time. Not our seventeenth. I say we just have some fun with it, we can change your phone later. You should consider getting a charge cable port linked up to your powers." she adds and grins.

There is a frown as Tabby focuses and uses some of that telepathy on Rita to try and see what the whole deal is. "I doubt we'll be bored." she says aloud while sounding concentration focused.

It's not second nature like Emma or Jean might be used to, even if it's been over a year since Boomie had that upgrade.

Talia Wagner has posed:
"Ellie," Talia says fondly. "I can't teleport like my dad. I can ... possess people." And make with the blasty, but that's not something she needs to do right now. Soon, probably, but not right now.

The ride gets bumpy, and Talia braces herself against the seat in front of her with her hands, and wraps her tail around the legpost of the bench she's on. She cheats because she can stick to things. If Ellie falls into her, oh well.

"I'm not really thrilled being here, I can think of much better uses for my time." Especially as things go psychadelic out the windows.

Negasonic has posed:
So. Ellie was expecting a bus ride. Not a descent into madness.

She reaches out her hand to the front of the seat before her, tucking the phone away when things get wierd. Nori in the back experencing that trauma of being phoneless draws a rare look of sympathy from Ellie, even if things are...

"Okay, what the actual fuck is going on?"

The bumpy ride - flying upwards a bit, she was *not* sticky - not like Talia seemed to be. And the tail was clutch right now.

Tabby seemed to be one of the calmer ones.

"...dunno about *that*," she says.

Another bump.

"I'm sure there's some life lesson or some shit we're going to find out about...!" she says. Another bump does take the much less anchored Negasonic tumbling towards Talia, her slide bumping her against Talia's hip as she manages to keep her grip on the seat in front of her, at least.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I can charge it Tabitha."  Noriko can also blow it up, but she doesn't mention it  "I just can't keep myself from stealing the charge.  It's like a reflex, or a twitch."  Noriko, per usual, looks unamused by Tabitha's contribution to her situation.  "And my gauntlets aren't like, easily modable okay?"  Noriko doesn't know.  She hasn't studied electronics.  She also has no idea how the bio side works.  But does she admit this?  To Tabitha?!  Never.

"I'm sorry Tabby but being kidnapped isn't like going to the dentist."  Noriko seems to talk over all of the wild twists and turns as easily as if she were sitting there, one of the few or only people to adjust effortlessly to the chaotic lurching and not looking like she might lurch herself.  She has one foot kicked up over the aisle to brace her between the seats.

Then Noriko looks up and sees Spiral, the multiple arms.  The arms...upon arms.  "Nope."  There's just something in Noriko that has suddenly been wound very tightly at the prospect of some kind of imprisonment, abduction, and the like.  A vigilance, like that of an animal waiting for its chance to bolt.  "So.." she says to the others.  It hasn't even occurred to her that some of the other occupants might be a bit sick from all of the winding epileptic-episode-inducing traveling.

Spiral has posed:
The bus isn't alone as it travels dimensions. Some tag-alongs are emerging from the skidmarks that Spiral is leaving on reality. Half-glimpsed shapes heaving in and out of the technicolor fog.

For a brief interlude, sirens could be heard, and some manner of Cop on an orange hovercycle seemed to be gaining. This had caused Spiral to curse into the side view mirror, "Piss off JusticePrick!" And she had swerved the bus over some yawning weird-ass pothole to give the pursuer the slip. "Almost there!"

The route is a real riptide, joining other travelers before cutting them off. But then the bus suffers a massive impact that sends it careening, and causing a nasty indent, shattering many of the windows free of glass. The wind that howls in is warm.

Bounding beasts with multiple eyesockets, sporting antennas like whiskers. Each maw composed of shutter-bulb flashing teeth, and a gullet holding a crystaline lens. Once one has caught a whiff of the vehicle and the zappy-zappy power thrumming inside the chassis. Or perhaps it is the much more thrilling detection of individuals inside. Bright shining diamonds, blessed or cursed with abilities noteworthy and dangerous. They all converge to smother and batter the bus.

"Gods damned Pupper-azzi's! Get rid of 'em! PlzKThx!" she wrestles with the wheel, her inner thoughts and the spell to drag them into the right dimension.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
There's a lot of stuff going on in Rita's mind. "Could be worse. Could still be her old boss." Tabitha says and grins to the woman she probes. Who no doubt knows Tabby just peeked in that nugget. "Cause screw Mojo." she adds and grins.

Back to the others she shrugs. "Kinda like Karma, but no body left behind when you start driving?" she asks about Talia.

Though Karma's is more just a specialty to her own telepathic powers.

As for the the fuck that's going on, Tabby being calm, is probably a cause for terror, or at least a reassurance. "It can't be any worse than some of the last time we were imprisoned. Ya'll want we can blaze it up a head of time. Get good and high. If this thing has Nitrous, we can always use that. Then maybe it might be like being at the dentist." she states with a wink to Nori.

"At least any pain will be spread out than just in our mouths!" she says as Rita gets distracted by outside interference. "Hey, open the the side door. No matter what plane of existence, ACAB is a constant! Shame Sam had to go get a badge." she says and heads to the short stair well used to step in and out of the bus.

A few glowing orbs of plasma already forming and orbiting around the pigtailed blonde woman. "I say we stop calling a field trip and call it a road trip. We stop somewhere, grab a cooler full of booze, a whole bag of weed, or puffies. Dear god those are amazing!" she suggests while preparing to create a light show out of the vehicle.

Talia Wagner has posed:
"Something like that," Talia replies to Tabby as they blitz through LSD Hell. "I kinda hop in, pilot them for a while, then they pass out for, like, a day." She only shifts a little as Ellie slides into her. Luckily for everyone, Talia is fairly soft. Not too pointy.

Something seems to catch her attention, and she pulls Ellie down, shielding her from the shattering glass. Which is foolish, because Negasonic is wearing that awesome coat that could probably count as armor, and Talia is wearing a t-shirt. Luckily school bus glass mostly pebbles when it breaks, so it just goes everywhere and doesn't really slash her up. "You okay?"

Of course, before the moment could go further, Things attack. TJ pops up and points a hand out the broken window, hurling a Hex Bolt at the closest critter. It's concussive! And probably annoying!

Negasonic has posed:
Oh, and don't worry, Talia. Ellie had caught that statement from before.

Possessing people? "Badass. Like a demon," she says. Perhaps not the best comparison, but as needs must. Clutching onto the seat in front of herself for dear life as they travel along the psychadelic field trip, Ellie was trying to draw mental strength from the cool that she had inside of herself - and the nonplussed way many of the other inhabitants were handling the fast road to freaksville.

And the shapeless horrors that were starting to meander onto the bus.

"...fuck," she says to no one in particular.

... right before the window shatters, and she brings her arm up to use that coat to shelter her from the safety glass. She looks to Talia at the question, and nods her head, once.

"How about we start calling it a problem?!" she calls to the others. Although another bump in the road sends her bumping into Talia again, still keeping her head low with the other woman.

Negasonic's powers were reaaaaally hard to use in confined spaces. But she tries to focus the energy at her hand alone...

Energy builds up at her fist - and she punches it at another one of the windows - the next one over, hoping to explode it *outwards*, and harm the creature that was hanging onto it.

You know. Without exploding the whole bus.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"You guys there's some kind of power source that is kinda crazy down there," Noriko says and points to where no engine machinery should be on a bus.  Even amongst all the violent chaos of their careening route, the constant thrum has been boring through Noriko like an ear worm, constantly there, constantly powerful.  So annoying.

"I'd try to drain it but I have a feeling we'd end up stuck in some creature's extradimensional asshole."  Just then, the glass shatters next to her and she lifts her arms up to shield her face which makes her give up her grip which means she gets flung, but employs her quick reflexes to kick out a foot to stop her from plowing into something.

"Give me the joint.  Give me the joint.  Booze doesn't work for me.  What are puffies?  Will they make this pass by faster?"  The ride has given Nori a change of heart?  Or maybe she's remembering how it feels to de-charged.  "Wait what happens to your body when you possess someone?"  It's like the thought has interjected and split through her paranoia.  Noriko just reaches out to backhand one of the creatures that has gotten quite theatrically showy with it's snappy snappy maw.  The gauntlet is heavy and charged with a fair amount of electricity.  She has to be careful not to hit the metal body of the bus, remaining precariously perched on her seat so she doesn't accidentally electrocute anyone.

Spiral has posed:
Spiral's harried look spares a glance towards Tabby, and the realization that her brain might have just been thumbed through, has her pull a frowny face and miss a beat. But one things she can agree to, on automatic, is screw Mojo. She gives that a firm nod and lets go of the wheel. "We've upgraded to Road Trip!"

Another impact as one off the ghastly creatures tries to act as a speed bump, angling the lens in its maw towards a killer POV angle of the onrushing vehicle. Definitely a bumpy ride. And it sends Spiral off her feet, having to fall back on her agile ways from faceplanting. And then she's reaching down to the aisle of the bus to wrench off a large floor panel. She reveals the secret guts of the bus. Stuff that would appeal to Forge, or Tesla. The spinning centrifuge inside definitely isn't standard and is saturated with errant licks of electricity. "Ow! MotherFu-" She holds a seat on either side of her and tries to reach a switch, looking like a spider crouching over a rectangular portal containing Thor's anger. "I can't get to the amplifier! I knew I should have stolen Scarlet W's broomstick instead!"

The ~things~ outside curl about, snarling and ~kiish kisssh kisssh~ their teeth, making their darting attacks like a light strobing in a dark room. Staggered snapshots, like animation missing frames.

The nasty thing closet to Talia earns a mouth full of Hex power, shattering the lens in its mouth, sending shards up into the roof of its mouth. An echo of this, and no less devastating, is the storm of splinters and razor dust that results from Negasonic shotgunning another of the abominations.

Getting slapped by those gauntlets of Noriko's does not tickle. That love tap on the shnoz has the effect of discharging electricity into the creature, and make a cat's cradle of those sprouted antennas. The load of energy has the creature start babbling an insane gibberish. "GROW TEN INCHES. SHRINK TEN INCHES. FREE FRONTAL LOBOTOMY. BUY ONE, GET NONE. SMILE SMILE SMILE." and it jitteringly chatteringly bumble-broadcasts more insanity as it cart wheels into the ether.

The wounds inflicted bleed monofilament strands, beaded with mercury pearls. As two of the monsters are sent whimpering and yowling, they attract their brethren. There is a gibbering gleeful way that they circle and then ~tear~ in. A suicidal frenzy to gobble up the most gruesome event and make it worse, and then feast on the mess and devour it.

Spiral rears back from the hatch, shielding part of her face. She screams to Noriko, "Kill it!" And then as if this might be understood she follows up with. "Suck it dry! We'll be...okie dokie!" The grin she offers is on par with the things outside. Frantic, crazy-girlfriend meme levels, better suited to a zealot that just heard the second coming was at hand. "Shut it down and we'll coast clear!" Probably. Maybe.

With blood in the ether, the remaining things come in, en masse to bludgeon the bus. Not wanting to allow a cliff hanger. Season finale vibes.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabby's voice gets a little louder, but she does pull one of the joints she stashed from yellow denim pockets. It's in her lips, lift with a wisp of her plasma because why use lighters when you are the lighter.

Being her blunt it's given the first couple puffs, slow and steady. Then it's offered to Noriko. "I found them out when we were in space last time, after some of the info we learned, we could do with them. Puffies are usually just an ordinary snack to non humans. To us, it's like gummy 'shrooms! I got a bag stashed back home." clearly she's offering.

"I still got a tray of special brownies too. You know I'm always good for weed brownies. Dunno bout faster, but hey, fucks less given!"

she is way too casual while she gets hit by random glass shards and whever the hell else is coming in. 5r
She however lets bombs fly out the bus, and soon after the noise really begins as explosions go off as Tabby directs the volatile spheroids at anything getting too close to the bus.

Tabby does not hold back so much as she's high. Or getting high.

Talia Wagner has posed:
Talia winces as the ... entity gets a mouthful of its own lens shards. That can't feel good. Though, these are some weird interdimensional predators. She hucks a few more bolts out the window, getting into a rhythm with Ellie between taking a little cover and popping up to wing shots out at their pursuers.

"The TV lied to me. Being on the Magic Schoolbus would absolutely suck! Arnold was right!"

Negasonic has posed:
Negasonic had a reputation for being too cool for school.

That was generally when fighting terrestrial threats, and while her mind handled the overstimulation of the induced-ADHD that this whole thing was trying to throw her way - the predators in the middle of it were... worrisome.

So she was super serial about this whole thing.

"Just... be careful!" she says. "Sometimes, it's hard to control this shit...!" she says.

Case in point, the next 'flare' of her power that she attempts to generate seems to catch alight, tracking along her arm like fire tracks along gasoline vapors.

With a curse on her lips, she tosses that away - the low *thwooooomp* that fills the inside of the bus might be distracting.

And reasonable that the side of the bus she was facing gets indented outwards.

"SERIOUSLY," she says, her voice full of irritation. "WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!" she calls to no one in particular.

Even if she was moving around Talia considering the proximity she had to the anchored girl. And hell. If Teej was going to be all sticky and taily, maybe Negasonic clings to her for a little solidity as she works with her to fight off the interdimensional threat.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko is taking a hit off the blunt when Tabitha explains about getting something from space.  For a moment, she looks down at the blunt, and then remembers she asked about the 'puffies' ages ago, or at least what is ages to her.  "I'm getting stoned, that's what's happening.  If I'm going to be eaten by monsters or kidnapped down Wonka's mindfuck.  You should have brought the puffies.  I bet if we took them everything would be normal," Noriko rattles off.  And then she's told by the crazy lady to suck it dry.

"Yeah, we'll be 'okie dokie' with you."  Whatever.  Maybe it's the weed.  Noriko doesn't even /know/ if this is real electricity or magic juice or some other cursed junk she's about to take in, but she doesn't think about that.  She just pins the blunt between her lips and crawls over the seats to where Spiral is doing a bus-amdectomy.  She hangs herself over the 'guts' and sticks one of her gauntlets out grab hold of the frame that the centrifuge is attached to.  Her eyes close and suddenly her hair starts standing up on end as if she were floating underwater.  As Noriko fills with charge, the electricity ripples up her arm like electric roots.

Spiral has posed:
With such a determined defense, the bus can't get bashed into oblivion. The toll taken on the aggressive entities is immense. The explosions popping off, bolts singing home and impacts upon their bodies are gratuitous. It adds layers of madness onto matters, the creatures caught between needing to attack and yet not miss the sight of a comrade suffering. Shellshock and over stimulation. Things further out in the void sense it and try and steer clear. And the howls of pain radiate outwards, sending ripples. Chum in the water. A hint of greater things hearing this akin to a dinner bell. Spiral catches a few glimpses as she raises her chin and peers out past the outward buckled siding of the bus. Her exclamation, "Huh." may sound non-plussed, but it may be that even for her, there's a certain point where the situation is so fully shat the bed, that over saturation is possible. "This isn't my fault." To the mental lifeboats! Excuses tossed like grappling hooks! "It's not the destination! It's the journey!" That's something they say, she thinks. Well hold on, there's always just...cutting and running. There's so much going on, she could just, leave. If it's just for herself, she can get the flick out of here. Sorry, sometimes that's just the way the X-baby bounces. Her fingers flex, preparing to invoke a Warner Bros. sized hole to drop into. The long cosmic whale moan of the leviathan that dives towards the bus and the wolfpack of Pupperazzi creatures frames the decision to flee in a very attractive package.

But then Noriko is there and reaching forward. It's a wild image of them all, some with blunts between teeth or lips, others taking wild-west pot-shots out of broken windows. More than surreal, it's breathtaking.

The engine beneath the floor gets absorbed. All that power going to Surge, so suddenly that the connection between source and device is broken like a katana through cookie dough. All the lights go out and plunge things into darkness. Gone are the things outside, their roars, the howls of worse things enroute. All illumination comes from those things alight or crackling upon individuals inside the chassis of the bus.

Slowly...slowly, the bus rattles and skews itself to a shuddering halt upon sandy surfaces. A dust storm scrapes along the sides of the bus before twirling off into a column of rotating air. A cross roads just in front of the nose of the bus, sun-baked vista with a few landmarks. A saloon of sorts, a parking lot filled with interesting modes of transport.

"Huh." Spiral wrinkles her nose and starts counting that she's still got all her limbs. She clears her throat. "Ta...daaaaaah."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"You know, if we're getting extra planar here, we could go see what we can get high off out here! Nothing needle based. Smoke, snort, swallow. No shooting!" It's her drug rules.

"It's not a journey if there's no destination! It's just wandering!" she points out. The second joint is lit up and she's taking nice slow puffs while she blasts away. It's cathartic for her as she really doesn't feel a need to give any kind of crap about the attackers.

Thankfully tabby has tinted glasses so when she makes the booms extra bright to scrample camera lense eyes or whatever they have, it makes visibility harder for the pupperazzi.

Eventually they all get clear and come to a stop.

"Sooo, how does the funky engine energy feel Nori? Ellie, Teej? you fine ladies okay? You too?" she even asks Rita because hey, she's there and while she may have kidnapped the four mutant women, Tabby is more amused.

"As far as kidnappings go I rate this about a seven point two. Usually they tend to be a lot more traumatic." she admits.

The Saloon, and the parking bays get a squinty considering eye. "Guess the bus isn't making the trip home. Can always replace it. But I am driving next time!" she states with a playful firmness.

Talia Wagner has posed:
Everything goes dark, even Talia's glowing eyes and night vision can't cut through it. It's probably for the best. Somehow, she keeps calm, but this isn't her first dimensional jaunt, either. When the bus impacts the ground, she grunts, looking first to Ellie then about to everyone else, squinting against the fresh, dusty light.

"I've had enough dimensional travel, thanks," she grumps, uncoiling her tail from the seat and stopping her bracing. She gives one of Negasonic's hands a gentle pat as she first looks to Tabby and then to Spiral. "And we're getting home how?"

Negasonic has posed:
What Ellie likes the most is the lack of bobbing. She was getting bussick in a hurry, and the Things From Outside threatening to eat them all is well... concerning.

And when things go dark, and splutter to a stop, well - she had scrambled to the next seat towards the front, trying to work her way to that big side door. If she had to explode, well...

She didn't want to take her buddies with her. Maybe the freaky multi-armed driver, though.

"You didn't do a good job driving *this* time," Ellie tells Spiral.

Handpats draw her eyes back to Teej. "... you got Magik or your dad on speedial?"

And she looks to Nori last. That was a lot of juice back there. Her tongue goes against her upper teeth.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
When the lights go out, Noriko opens her eyes.  They glow a cool blue, like coal wrapped in electric fire.  She plucks the blunt from her lips, having not inhaled.  "...Wow."  She shudders as if a chill just went up her spine.  For the girl who liked to expose the wire in her dorm to get a little tickle from the wire, this is, well.  Wow.  The smile that forms could be slightly unnerving to those who are more accustomed to the grumpface she likes to sport.

"It probably wasn't a bad idea to smoke this," is Nori's reply to Tabitha.  "Feels weird.  I don't know if I can convert it to velocity.  Might just have to release it at some point.  But I don't feel unstable yet."  Could be the weed making everything fine.  She shrugs.  "I guess we'll see."  For the meantime, she seems to just be all glowy, and her hair hasn't stopped acting like a mermaid's, eerily undulating in the shadows.

When they finally come to a stop and Talia poses her question to Spiral, Noriko replies quickly, "Well we're not getting home staying here."  She moves from seat to seat for insulation, still unwilling to risk an accidental surge on any of the others, but she's moving to the emergency exit in the back which she aims a lightning fast kick at, hoping she'll be cool enough to make it actually open at the very least.  Inside, she's crawling to get out of this death trap, to be free to run, to feel that security.

Spiral has posed:
Spiral sucks in air past her teeth. A pair of hands come out to frame a thought, or produce a Hadouken. Or that Tsoukalos guy with weird hair meme-ing Aliens. "You'd have decided it wasn't a 'napping ~after~ you'd had a blast. The dealership said that baby would practically drive itself! It's been to woodstock twice!" The script in her head has definitely not followed things to the letter. The rewrites on the fly have not gone swimmingly. She feels like screaming out the request 'LINE' as the speed sickness, the lack of forward momentum threatens her with actually thinking about the here and now rather than opportunities ahead. She can almost hear the pitter-patter of consequences coming over the horizon for her. That's less fun than forecasting great success and wishful thinking. She rises fully to her feet as Noriko and her rather interesting hair do their thing. The back door of the flies a satisfying distance as it's kicked off and into a sand dune.

One of Spiral's hands gestures towards Tabitha for one of those joints while she composes herself. Having a bunch of extra hands means being able to comb one's hair, dust yourself off of debris and multi-task. "Getting back to Earth is easy. Easy peasy." She juts her chin. "Like Boom-boom said, we can replace our ride. We could find a way to reuse this beast. A bunch of smart and sassy gals like us, we've got options."

The bus drops with a jarring ~krump~ and the wheels rolls off to each point of the compass.

"Less options. But still...We could RIP reality a new one and slip on back all by ourselves." Her eyes narrow and she smiles wide. "Hell, check it out. We've got the juice, the battering ram, the courage and the heart to make it work." This is accompanied by pointing to each of the other girls in turn. Lots of hands are super useful. "But first, let's think it over with a drink over in that place." She raises her hands and wiggles her fingers. "My treeeeaaaaat. Besides, we've upgraded to road trip. New rules for those types of movies." She smiles happily, upgrading from PG-13 to A or R, or even NR comes with it much less worry about standards and practices. They can let loose all sorts of Hell to get the Plot moving along. Forward momentum! Glorious!

Tabitha Smith has posed:
The blonde sweeps an arm towards some of the vehicles on display. "If we can't charge the bus. I can give that a shot. Then we steel a ride. Keep an ear out for anything assholish enough to make us not feel guilty about grand theft auto.

"I can call Illyana in a pinch. Benefits of dating a Sorceress Supreme." she says and puffs on her joint. About half of it gone when she passes it to Spiral. But it won't last much longer.

"Think we should at least go into the bar, case the joint in case your money is weird? Where and or when the hell are we anyway?" she looks back to Spiral before looking back at the others. "Then buy a round, see who deserves to have their ride stolen. Boost it. Then we hightail it till we find a somewhere we can get a cooler, ice, and more drugs. I'd suggest pick up some strippers, but we can always sort that out for ourselves." she jokes and raises her hands to do a little serpentine hip swaying dance of her own.

Negasonic has posed:
Finally crumpling out of the bus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead brings up her phone, frowning at it in this dimension.

Something on the top right of the screen causes her to curse.

She brings up her hand to brush her thumb along the side of her head. "Aliens, dimension hopping..." she says.

"...and no bars. I guess you just gotta do what you gotta do," she says, tucking the phone away with an exceptionally sour look, snapping her collar all cool as she takes a step on what looks suspiciously like terra firma.

"Alright. Might be a shocker, but I don't hop dimensions, usually. Any ground rules?" she asks. But she was following the group towards the bar, regardless.