17503/Tennis Everyone

Tennis Everyone
Date of Scene:	27 March 2024
Location:	Tennis Court
Synopsis:	The Spring Tennis Tournament at Xaviers School is interrupted by a notorious prank gang amongst the student body! Hijinx ensue!
Cast of Characters:	Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Tabitha Smith, Noriko Ashida

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Rogue has posed:
It was the kick off of the Xaviers School Spring tennis season, and as such the upper classmen and women were out in show today. Three grade levels, each one with six players signed up this year, all vying for dominance on the court. The younger classes were all present, as well, enjoying the matches, while a number of faculty were having to explain the rules to the youngest of the bunch almost constantly, because lets be honest... tennis has some weird ass rules.

It's a fairly perfect day, with only a bit of nip in the air still from cold nights soon to fade in to warmer weather on the near horizon.

The matches have been going well, with all eyes on the final match between two senior girls. There was catering brought in this afternoon, as well, and with it a number of tables and chairs are setup serving as a place for the rest of the students to sit and enjoy some food while they watch the games.

Little does anyone know that a prank is in the works, between James 'Hambone' Hamilton, his crew, and the others in the senior class that have been shunning the Hambone gang since Halloween night, where a little fight had broken out...

Rogue is standing beside the tennis court, her arms crossed with her eyes on the match as the two young women are in heated battle, running back and forth, sending the bright green ball side to side in a skillful display of their talent, and practiced abilities on the court!

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde finishes explaining the rules to a pair of the youngest students. It might be the third time they've had them explained. And judging from the slight confusion still showing, they might require a fourth.

Leaving them there, Kitty walks around the court, pausing until a serve takes place then continuing on when she won't be a distraction. She walks over beside Rogue. "Who was it that won our first year?" she asks, trying to remember as she thinks back to their time as students.

Kitty's wearing a pair of sweat pants and tennis shoes, with a thick hoodie on for a little bit of extra warmth if the wind should pick up, but the hood is down. The front bears the logo of a pet store in town where Kitty sometimes gets live food for Lockheed.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Long before she could telekinetically direct her plasma, there was a time when Tabitha Smith could only generate spheroid plasmoid explosives. And had to throw them by hand.

This meant she had to try all kinds of tricks to extend her range, and improve her aim. Adding Spin and English to things was part of it and doing so via sports as the most expedient means to practice.

Tennis just happened to be possibly the dorkiest thing. As would it have been Tabitha ever admitting she might have been a jock as a student.

Bowling doesn't count.

"She is at least dressed to play herself, black sporty minidress, yellow stripe down the front. Turns out it's one of her more summery X-Suits but it's comfy and lets her move. And is safe from her own powers.

Yes sometimes she still does like to dress extra girly.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is wearing a pullover hoodie in dark green, with 'ROGUE' in black military font on her chest. She's got a pair of black shorts on, and white and green sneakers. With her aviators on over her eyes, she's staring at the match between Jenna and Rhona, watching as the two girls continue to wow with their agility, grace and ability to make clutch saves against one another's strikes. Jenna scores a point, causing the audience to clap, with some of the younger kids asking more questions as to the nature of how the scoring system works.

"Uh..." comes Rogue's initial response to Kitty's question, her covered eyes still on the match as the girls queue up for another round. "I think it was Tracy Fleeb." She says, glancing to Kitty. "Wasn't it?" She asks back. "I dunno, I'd only been here a couple months at the tail end of that school year..."

She glances over at Tabitha, and smirks at her. "Wanna play me in the teacher match afterward?" She asks the blonde. "Winner plays Kitty. She's the best of us here..."

Off in the tree line, Hambone and his three comrades of chaos, whisper as they point at the tennis court, then at the tables with all the kids. With a glance over his shoulder, the portley Senior motions to something in the foliage, before softly whistling...

Just as Rhona makes her serve at the court, a rustle comes from the trees, and an army of birds takes to the sky, flying out over the yard above the match! It draws both of the women playing to look upward, along with the eyes of literally everyone else enjoying their food and drinks around the game.

All eyes on the skies, as the birds begin to let loose of their bowels down upon the tennis players, the audience, and everyone gathered there-in.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
"Oh yeah," Kitty replies as Rogue dredges up a memory with who won. "Her serve and volley game was such a pain. I swear long arms capable of reaching lobs and passing shots was her mutant power," Kitty says, letting out a chuckle and shaking her head at memories of playing the aforementioned Fleeb.

She crosses her arms, leaning a shoulder against the fence as she watches the match. Kitty looks over to Tabitha and gives her a nod of greeting.

Which also means there's really no chance she'll spot what Hambone is up to in the other direction. Kitty doesn't spot the birds on her own, but when everyone else looks up, she looks up too. Her eyes widen just a bit at the sight of so many birds. "Oh no. Oh hell no," Kitty says. She reaches over to Rogue who she's standing by, and if Tabitha is near enough, she'll get a hand on her shoulder as well as Kitty phases about a second before the bombardment starts hitting the courts and the crowd.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
The blonde is watching the match with a grin. "Rhona, treat the racquet like it was your shields. Like deflecting energy blasts!" she kinda coaches. Power use being applied to mundane skills and vice versa.

"Our English girl's totally rocking it." she cheers a bot more quietly.

The challenge to a teacher on teacher match gets a chuckle. "I'm down, I ain't a teacher though, about all I'd be qualified for is kindergartern. And we'd still need to fake the credentials." she points out.

It's very difficult to sneak up on a telepath. It is is possible. Mostly because Tabby is straining to keep a lot of the background psychic noise dulled down. So even she has no idea what's about to happen as Kitty reaches across just as everyone is looking up.

Thankfully her dress survives the oncoming storm as a result.

"Kitty, I swear I could fall in love with you right now!" she declares playfully.

Rogue has posed:
The rest of the audience viewing the match, as well as the two girls in the middle of it, are less fortunate than the trio of ladies that benefit from Kitty's abilities. What follows is a number of students trying to put their own powers to use to protect themselves! One of which is a young Mutant able to turn anything in to liquid, to break it down to some measure of water. His power suddenly causes the ground around his table to turn in to a muddy sink hole, and the table itself to just splash down in to the ground, along with the ten people sitting around it! Another table is blown away when a Junior classman tries to use his wind manipulation ability to push the falling bird poo aside, sending the table... and everything upon it hurtling toward the finely trimmed hedges! Yet another Mutant student uses their nature manipulation power to create a sudden bridge of hedges building out from those around the tables, causing a wave of earth and debris to fly across the audience area, as dirt and flower pedals now rain down upon half of the gathered people as well!

Needless to say, this creates a cacophony of screams, shouts, confusion and abject terror, as the whole tennis tournament is drowned in turmoil... and a lot of gross stuff.

"Oh shit." Hambone utters, his fellow Comrades of Chaos saying basically the same thing. They begin to question him, Ricky shaking James' shoulder. "I didn't know they were gonna take a shit on everyone!" Hambone exclaims. "It was a distraction, to send the squirrels in to steal the donuts, thats all!"

Rogue is left clean of poo, as she makes a double-take toward Kitty, then at the audience area of tables, chairs, even the catered food table completely left in ruin. "Oh, fuckin' hell." She utters.

On the court, Rhona stands beneath one of her pink glowing shields, saved by it from the poo, while Jenna is drenched from head to toes in the bird gunk, as well as a fair amount of splash back from the chaos at the courtside!

Kitty Pryde has posed:
"Only now?" Kitty says back to Tabitha as she watches the carnage ensue. There just isn't really anything else she can do in the short term about what's happening, and no one is in signs of actual danger to be worth doing more than standing for a few more seconds while the wind, dirt, bird poo, and anything else passes through them harmlessly.

When finally it is over, Kitty unphases and drops her hands back to her side. She lets out a lengthy sigh. "Kind of missing it when the most irritating things we had to deal with were attacks by the Brotherhood, or Juggernaut," Kitty says as she looks at the people drenched in bird poop, stuck in bushes or covered in dirt or mud.

"Please tell me it's Logan's day to do the cleanup?"

Tabitha Smith has posed:
The phasing helps keep tabitha's dress safe from pool above, and any splashing down hitting her yellow sneakers. "Before I'd have just said it to get you into bed!" she jokes. She probably did more than a few times like the Disaster Girl she will admit to being.

At least the calamity being cause by hambone and the other kids trying to avoid laundry day early is amusing. Tabby would have been fine herself. Plasma spheres overhead could easily evaporate poop, and leave a clean air ozone smell.

But Kitty saved her the trouble while Tabitha starts to chuckle with amusement.

When the sit has settled down, literally, Tabitha starts to sweep for the culprits. There's probably some specific guilt instead of worry or fear which makes it easier for the less experienced psychic. "Alrighty who wants to take bets on who instigated it? Cause honestly I'm impressed."

Rogue has posed:
"Send the squirrels now!" One of the other kids with Hambone shouts.

"We don't want the donuts now! They're covered in bird shit!" James shouts back. "Oh shit, oh shit, we're so boned..."

"You got that right, you little fat fuck!" A voice says from 10 or so feet to the east of the hiding boys. All of their heads snap over to see three of the college aged kids, who were seniors last year, standing there glaring at the Comrades of Chaos, all three of them covered in bird poo. All of them looking very upset.

"Get over here, Boner! You and your boyfriends." Clark, a blonde haired young man growls out.

"Shit! Send the squrrels!"

From every tree around the backyard, little scraping sounds of claws clattering down tree trunks can be heard, as from every direction puffy tailed squirrels begin to descend upon the tennis court, and the hedges near by to the north! As people are trying to recover from the explosive reaction to the aerial bombardment... now everyone sees a host of about two hundred wiggly squirrely squirrels running past them, through them, around them, or over them to get toward the college guys trying to catch Hambone and his crew.

Seeing this, Rogue points toward the hedges. "There they are." She says with a glum sound to her voice. "We better get them seperated before this gets wors---" Rogue is cut off by a squirrel running past her, followed by ten more, causing the Belle to jump out of the way, as she seems disinterested in becoming a speed bump in the squirrel stampede!

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty lets out a sigh. "I don't imagine it'll take more than one guess," she says as she looks about for signs of the culprit. She starts out with looking from the direction the birds came, as that seems the most likely place. Rogue spots them first though. "Is detention for life banned in the Geneva Convention?" Kitty asks as she starts that way.

Then the wave of fluffy brown and grey tails come rushing towards them. Kitty sighs again and walks through the squirrels, though most of them try to flow around her anyway, a few just pass through her feet. One even jumps through a thigh.

"James!" Kitty calls out loudly. She normally calls him Hambone, but this is kind of like when your mother uses your first, last, and middle name. Kitty stomps straight towards the huddle of detention seekers, passing through anything in her way!

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Once Rogue points to the hedges. It doesn't take much to confirm yep, that's the source. And some of that anger as she picks up on that. The blonde eavesdropping telepathically.

The Squirrel stampede gets wide eyes. "Well things are definitely getting nuts." she had to make that joke. The universe demands puns some times.

So jogging to the hedge and the impending confrontation. While Kitty is getting to Hambone and his crew. It's the older college age boys that Tabby stares down, despite being five feet five and shorter as a result.

"Think we'd have taught y'all to throw banter better than that. Homophobic cracks say more about the speaker than the target after all." she points out wickedly. Having literally just flirted with Kitty moments ago. "So unless you wanna be the ones cleaning up the shit, I'd suggest letting this go." she warns. Her voice actually sounding serious as she keeps her eyes on Clark and his posse.

Rogue has posed:
With the lingering commands given to the squirrels, by Hambone, several lines of them end up taking donuts off of the filthy table, and rushing along with them in their mouths, or hands, finding places to begin to devour them as the command structure within their minds start to break down due to Hambone's concentration being split.

He, and his comrades, burst from the hedge, rushing away from the college guys, and toward the madness they have made, and toward Kitty. It is no secret that Kitty is James' long running crush, the faculty member at the top of his 'list', so to speak. Thus when he, and his gang, spot her, they rush toward her for safety from the college boys.

Said college boys stop when Tabitha gets between them, and the Chaos crew. "Oh, come on. Boyfriends isn't a slur, for all we know it's the truth!" The lead of the trio of bird poo-soaked young men fires back to the Boomer. "Don't get so touchy, that little shit stain is constantly doing this stuff! He's lucky to even be here anymore, after all the damn shit he's done to us for years now!"

At Kitty, Rogue joins her, striding up to stand beside Kitty, as the Chaos crew arrives, all stammering words out to the duo. "It wasn't supposed to go down like that, I promise!" James pleads with Kitty, glancing to Rogue, who raises her chin up defiantly in disbelief.

"When birds wake up, they dump their loads, you dorks." She says back to the group of misfit seniors. "And to think, you were supposed to graduate in a month..." She glances toward Kitty, "Think we should recommend they get held back a year for this?" She asks, playing off the question of detention for life, and taking it up a notch, clearly.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty gives the group of students the evil eye as they run over for protection. When Rogue arrives Kitty replies to the Mississippian, "I think we'll need to hear some pretty good reasons not to," Kitty says with a stern expression for the boys. "Look," Kitty says, waving a hand towards the chaos still unfolding. People helping others out of the hedge. Someone trying to get out of the mud pit created by the liquidification power, only to slip and slide back in. Kitty bites down on her lips at that part to keep a grin from forming.

Her hands up on hips in that posture that boys learn at a young age is a bad, bad sigh. "Well?" Kitty asks, turning that upset look on each boy one by one. "Were the rest of you unable to figure out how this was going to go? Don't we teach you a lick of common sense to go with English Lit and Math and Science?" she asks in an upset tone.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"It's a slur when you use the word while you're trying to bully them!" Tabby is not having any of that bullshit. "Now go and get cleaned up because I swear the next shit stains I see..." she points at the older boys with a scowl and maybe a flash of glowing blue in her irises.

"Will be donkey shit in your faces. While it's still on the floor." a threat she can easily carry out.

Dealing with the punishment side of dealing with Hambone is kind of out of her paygrade since she's not really on a paygrade for that. <<Ain't like we never pulled pranks like this when we were kids. We just worked it off. Honestly, I'd say the attempt at planning was pretty good. The execution just came up shy because that's pranks for ya. Maybe we should put them through the Danger Room, give them some EAL challenges.>> It's mean but it might show the kids have some promise. Despite the opinion weighed in telepathically, she keeps her eyes on the older boys.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
When things go to shit, Noriko usually is called in to help cleanup, especially now that she earns her keep at the Mansion.  So when she caught wind of some hullabaloo disrupting the event SHE HELPED SETUP AND SWIFTLY ABANDONED because watching people play tennis, mutant or not, is a nod for the speedster.  Might as well be watching old people doing calisthenics in the park.

Well so when she caught wind of the vile chaos sweeping the courts and beyond, first Noriko sighed.  Then someone shouted down the corridor that the squirrels were involved.  They've taken the donuts!  That was is, and here she is.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ABOUT ALL OF THIS CRAP!" Noriko...would have roared, or starts to roar when she slips and skids into a roll, coming at a little wave of squirrels that merely hop over her rapid log-rolling body.

Rogue has posed:
The college boys all show Tabitha a myriad of faces to her commands of them. Though, they eventually quietly accept her words, and begin to stalk off. Clark, the lead boy, turns back to her and smirks toward her. "You're not even a teacher here. Why don't we go get some drinks some time?" He calls out toward her, before he winks at Tabi, showing her a finger-gun gesture.

Hambone quickly looks between his friends, then to Kitty and Rogue. "We'll do whatever it takes, cleaning, chores, we'll paint the house! Clean all the cars all summer! Just ... don't make us, have to... repeat the school year." The three of them are all red faced, sweaty and covered in their own filth. Rogue is left just smirking at this, before she looks toward Kitty. "I leave it to you on this one..." She says, before turning toward the court, and striding back toward it.

Nori's arrival is met with a scattering of squirrels put out by her sudden appearance, with a pair of the tiny wiggly wild rats dragging a bearclaw in front of her, having a deadly duel to the death over who gets to claim the sugary treat.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde might be known for calling someone a jerk now and then. But she's actually not much of a hardass when it comes to being guidance counselor to the students. It appears Hambone's response was enough to forestall some of that sternness that she was projecting.

"I think that sounds like a good start," she says. She turns and looks around at everyone trying to recover from what they've been through. "Rogue, think we should postpone the match until tomorrow? We can pick it back up in the morning and get through all the other matches? Even if we get the court and grounds cleaned up in time, maybe best to let them get a night of sleep before resuming after this."

She can only imagine how those feel who are covered in bird droppings.

Kitty turns back to the students. "Alright, let's go. Inside to my office," she says, pointing to the mansion.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
It's probably not a good idea to try and hit on someone chewing you out so when Clark makes an attempt. Tabby's finger gun in return might be a little more loaded as small poppers of plasma go off at his and the other older boys' feet.

It's definitely a no there.

They are totally going to find donkey poop in their bedding somehow. The lack of being a teacher here does feel like a sticking point to her. <<Gah, what do I even do here?>> she asks the Actual Adults that do work here.

"I'll get you next time Anna! Next time!" she says in an attempt at supervillain voice complete with shaking. She's not gonna help clean though since that should be part of the punishment. "Tomorrow might be a stretch. IF they gonna clean the place, no powers. The tedium, oh the tedium!" she states and occasionally incinerates any wayward streaks of white poop before she can skid on them. "Nori, you got yaself a mind field to be careful of. Jubes gonna make you sleep outside if you get any on ya." she jokingly warns.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko groans after she comes to a stop and doesn't move at first but to extend one of her gauntlets at the bearclaw getting away.  The snap of charge comes first, followed by a bluish white flash of a charge that explodes the poor donut on contact.  Pieces of it fall on the rats like guts, charred on the corners and tiny bits.

Finally, Noriko pushes up to her feet, looking a bit scuffed up from the rolling process and in dire need of a shower.  One of her gauntlet sparks and she suddenly holds it away from her, causing her to immediately wince from her own movements.

"I'm not cleaning this up!" Noriko declares loudly, not knowing what Kitty and Rogue are exactly saying over there, but letting it be known with a very very sour look on her face.  "I'm serious!" to Hambone and his comrades' backs as they are lead inside.  She slumps a little to the side in posture, the shoulder that took the brunt of the impact dropped lower than the other one.

As soon as Tabby speaks Nori's name, the speedster is wheeling that sour look to her.  "It's all over me you ass."  Her gauntlet sparks again, angrier this time.  She kicks some scraps of donut away from the rats off into the horizon.  If one of the rats was in the way...oh well.  She growls and mutters something about just trying to help and slips again, though has much less momentum this time and lets out a little howl.

Rogue has posed:
The college guys all react to the little explosive poppers going off at their feet with the reaction one might expect, in the form of yelps, hollars, and sudden amounts of speed toward one of the distant walking paths! They vanishe around the eastern gardens headed back toward the college house in the front yard.

Rogue stands on the edge of the court, talking to Jenna, and Rhona, before nodding her head toward Kitty. "We'll give the game a mulligan come tomorrow, high noon?" She asks the two tennis phenoms, with one drenched in bird droppings, holding a towel over her partially cleaned face, and the other entirely clean save for some splashes on her shoes.

The Comrades of Chaos all fall in line behind Kitty, loudly whispering angry comments to one another, while Hambone just grumbles, and mutters to himself. "Seriously, Kitty. Whatever it takes, don't tell Miss Grey about this, okay? She'll flay our minds!" He says, clearly more concerned about the bigger picture.

Noriko chases off the last of the squirrels, as the yard is left in total disarray. The people who'd fallen in the mud pool, have all been helped out, and lines of students are making their way back toward the house.

"Nori. Wanna help me get the cleaning supplies from the garasge?" Rogue calls back to the speedster. "We ain't gonna do the cleanin, but we can get it all laid out and ready for when Kitty is done with them." The Belle states, her hand pulling her phone from her hoodie pocket. "Tabi, ya did good with the bigger fellas too. If ever we do get a kindergarten level, I'll put your name in the hat." She says, showing the blonde a grin.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde gives a soft snort and looks back over her shoulder at Hambone. "Don't tell Jean? You think there's any way that she could miss this? People talking, and thinking, about it?" she asks as she gives a little shake of her head.

"You might be right about flaying your minds though. We should get her a new headpiece with mindflayer tentacles. Mindflayer GIrl," Kitty says, grinning and making a mental note to go make a copy of the video from the tennis match for posterity's sake. This one is going to get replayed a LOT.

"Thanks Rogue," Kitty says, "I'll have them back out in a bit. After everyone else has managed to clear out," she says, which is as much for the Comrade's benefit as anything, so angry people aren't letting loose on them further.

"Come on," she says, taking them into the school.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"I may be an ass, but I'm a fantastic ass Nori. But you can change clothes, disinfect with wipes. And a few extra electrical discharges will get rid of the smell. Jubes is clearly fine with our building pretty much all Ozone." Tabitha points out. "She might wanna avoid those guys a while. Gonna be really funky in their dorms soon." she adds, planning further vengeance.

Jean as a mindflayer gets a chuckle. "She'd probably look like one of Zoidberg's people than one of those things from the BG3." she chimes in keeping her mood kinda light now the boys are gone. Sadly she shares a building with them as well as Noriko and Jubilee.

"Tell ya what, I'll make a run to Salem Center, get more fresh donuts. I'll even spot a whole box for you Nori?" blessed carbs and sugary peace offerings.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"I'd love to!"  No, she wouldn't, but then there's a moment right before Noriko replies where she realizes they get to choose what the crew will have to clean with.  Her emotions shift as quickly as her thoughts and she squinty grins before blurrily padding her way to catch up to Rogue, a casual pace for her.

"I'm sure we have just the right tools for those tools."   Noriko's not a teacher, though she probably ought not to have said that.  She clearly has no remorse.  "Okay Tabby I'll be sure to follow your hygienic advise," she says with a flick of her gauntlet and clear annoyance that seems to float from one thing to the next freely like the electrons in her body.

"..."  Suddenly Tabitha's offering stops the speedster in her tracks as she considers.  Noriko squints.  "Okay."  Hmmf!  She can't resist.  It's a good peace offering.