18933/Mutants Growing Horribly - Pt 2

Mutants Growing Horribly - Pt 2
Date of Scene:	03 September 2024
Location:	East Bushwick (Mutant Town)
Synopsis:	A group of street heroes team up to take down a group of Mutant Growth Hormone dealers that have been grabbing kids off the street. Along the way they find torture, betrayal, and some of the worst humanity has to offer. But some of the best too. But it comes with a massive price to it. Warning, log includes dark themes such as torture, experimentation, and traumatic matter.
Cast of Characters:	Monet St. Croix, Luca Bandoni, Evan Sabahnur, Bishop, Sara Pezzini, Rogue

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Monet St. Croix has posed:
Several days of old fashioned detective work had lead to a location where several dozen missing street kids had vanished around. Vans were seen coming and going only for very short times late at night, and the place was buttoned up tight the rest of the time. It was an old property that was zoned business but had perpetual issues with getting permits, so was boarded up. Followup work had confirmed that it was owned via several shell companies operating out of Delaware.
    The location wasn't hooked up to the power grid, but those passing by it had noted a strong smell of diesel, which was indicative of a generator onsite. And personally for one of the members of the group; a couple of kids Luca had asked to help him keep searching had in turn vanished just a couple of days right after.
    Late at night, our heroes had gathered around the warehouse. The streets were empty. If anyone was capable of sensing it, there was a light psionic field about the place - the type that prompted unease, that nudged people to stay away, that something was wrong here. The place was bolted up tight, but for those who kept a very close eye out they could pick up very small external cameras and sensors of a military grade poking out of concealed positions along the reinforced building.
    And yet even at this late night, in the quiet, in the chills.. Something howled up from it, as if coming along through the sewers and vibrating out a manhole.

    A scream. Of complete fear.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
Luca's been keeping an eye on the situation, but he's been keeping an eye on one kid in particular - or looking for one kid in particular. From the moment he saw the video feeds from the mini-cams he put up with the help of a friend, he's been franticallyally looking for that one kid. It took a little while to find an exact location, but he did. At least he was semi-responsible this time and notified Sara.

Sara who's probably been frantically worrying about /him/, afraid he was going to run off and do something rash - never Luca.

He really was just going to scope the place before going in, honest he was.

That is until he heard that scream. That scream set his blood to ice - set his heart to pumping and sent all sense of reason fleeing from his mind. He knew the moment he heard it who that scream belonged to.

"Marcus!" It's not so much a yell that makes his voice so 'loud', it's the intensity of it that might make people around him pay attention. On moment he's trying to get a lay of the place from the shadows, the next he's rushing headlong to whatever door he can immediately find. Unless someone decides to try and stop him.

Evan Sabahnur has posed:
    Since Evan sees the homeless folks of Bushwick on a daily basis when they stop by Hope House for a meal or perhaps a donated shirt, the decline in their population was both obvious and worrying to him. He'd already started poking his nose in here and there when Sara had contacted him as a part of her own investigation, which leads us here - a building with entirely too much security for it's appearance.

    He says quietly "Right now my every sense is telling me to just go right through a wall and get to work in there, but my head reminds me that if this is where the missing mutants are, whoever kidnapped them could hurt them if we blunder in without a plan."

    He looks to Sara, then Rogue and continues "I imagine you two have some experience with this kind of thing, what's our best move?" He smiles a bit grimly and adds, "I can get in there unseen if you want, but I don't really have a way to talk to you out here once I do."

Bishop has posed:
Missing children in Bushwick? Mutant Town? Detective Work? Sounds like a job for the X----Bishop. Apparently just Bishop. The rest of the X-Men would have been informed of his whereabouts via quick comm chatter but given recent events at X-Corp and Mutant Town simply being ..well...itself....the Future Cop is not one to wait and sit silently when such matters are on the table.

His connections with District X and the Special Investigations Unit of Mutant Town come in handy as well. He'd been investigating these matters on his own volition but a call from a certain liaison and department head was enough to put him in the right direction and to bring him to the warehouse in question.

He arrives on foot, emerging from the darkness of an alley way like a lumbering grizzly bear in a trench coat, wearing the dark blues and red's of his X-Men uniform and with his X.S.E. blasters secured firmly to his side.

Upon seeing othes gathered, he raises an eyebrow and then begins approaching them after sending a quick comm message to Sara, <<I'm here.>>

To the others, he looks them over as he approaches and his deep voice muses, "I see Sara's not planning on pulling any punches. Is she nearby?"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
The night that Marcus went missing, Luca had been a royal mess. It has taken everything Sara had to keep him from attempting to tear the entire city apart looking for him. She'd made promises to investigate the situation, and not the usual over worked police promises that usually meant nothing was done for weeks. She put everything else aside, placed her second in command in charge of the Special Investigation Unit, and hit the streets of Bushwick hard.

Every contact that she had made in her year of working the one place most humans refused to work, she went and talked to. She asked hundreds of questions, set numerous pairs of eyes to watching, called in the 'big guns' that she knew would be able to help, and in the end it all paid off.

Outside the warehouse, she wore her street clothing... detective's didn't wear uniforms, and she was off duty. What that meant is simple, she had her side arm and was off the clock, but what police officer is really ever fully off the clock?

The scream carried up from the sewers sends a chill up her spine, but it's Luca's reaction that sends her into a run to grab him by the arm as she hisses, "Don't you dare! They'll kill the hostages before you hit the door. Use your head Luca, I /know/ you want in there... but we have to be smart about this."

She wanted to run in there, she wanted to rip down the walls and get to the missing people, but she also knew that this was something bigger than them. The military grade hardware outside, the planning involved in getting this far, the eerie energy, and so much more lead her to the conclusion that they weren't facing random thugs.

Looking back to Evan, while trying to pull Luca back toward the rest, she says, "This place has serious about their security, so we have two choices. Break in, or go in through the sewer. If we're hearing the happenings from within, it means there is a direct connection from the street sewer to the building."

She looks back toward the building, then scans the street for the nearest sewer grate. "If we barge in, we risk them killing the hostages... if we don't, we risk more of them being hurt before we get in there."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue had been on patrol tonight, the Mighty Woman gig always a good excuse to get out of the house, and come down to the city. Find some drunks fighting, or take photos with tourists who wanted to see a super hero while visiting New York. Sometimes she even came across some big stuff, like alien weapon smugglers last week...

Tonight, she'd been at a nearby basketball court, where some high schoolers had thrown their ball up on to a roof, conveniently just as Rogue was about to fly off, after taking some photos with locals across the street. She'd handed the ball back to the young men, and asked them why they had decided to just throw their ball up on top of a hardware store roof. Naturally, they gave her coy answers.

She'd gotten a call though, and reported to this site not too far from the would-be ballers. She arrived a few minutes ago, donned in her Mighty Woman garb. Dark green top, trimmed in white lines, with a charcoal grey shoulder cape, matching grey trousers of a synthetic leather, and dull grey metal boots that were armored up to her thighs. With black gloves on her hands, that reached up just past her elbows, the Mississippi Mutant looked toward Sara, then Evan, then to any others close by. She lastly just regarded the building, her white bangs flowing in the wind beside her face.

"I mean, yeah... Captured Mutants is sadly a norm for where I come from. But... really? My plans are usually pretty straight forward. Either knock on the door, or just bash through the damn wall, and say 'Hi' to whomever is on the other side..."

Her green eyes went back to Sara, and with a small smile. "Sewers work, too. If you're sure a direct approach is a dumb one. I'm new on whatever is happenin' here though..."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The scream goes quiet after a few moments. If one was -really- attuned to it, there was a light 'thump' accompanying it right before the quiet had come back up. As if it was never there. Right as the group would gather and coordinate along outside, there would be some sounds coming from within the building.
    Bishop's training would let him pick up the heavily reinforced walls. They had been built to withstand almost anything smashing through them. The gates for delivery trucks were several inches thick, the windows were blocked by thick, bulletproof glass. This place had been made to be a fortress.
    Sara and Luca's trainingw ould let them pick out several surreptitiously hidden sensors and cameras spread along the wall very covertly installed. The layout here was in depth and very well setup. Minimizing attention. Not a mercenary group or fanatics. Professionals.
    Evan's position would end up having him nearly stumble across a very small vial. One that was mostly empty, dribbling out a few drops of thick green liquid. The smell was familiar if one had ever picked it up before. Mutant Growth Hormone.
    On the streets a potent drug that gave someone powers for a short period of time, or for those that had them greatly enhanced them. At the cost of temporary insanity and going into a complete frenzy.
    For mutants and made by mutants. Or more accurately, of mutants. Out of bone marrow crushed, distilled, and put into a liquid, bio-chemical form.
    That was what all those missing kids had ended up. Being tied down, needles in their spines, having chunks of them removed bit by bit. And street labs weren't exactly known for using anesthesia.

Bishop has posed:
Though a little slower on the uptake then usual, Bishop clues in to the source of the scream and narrows his eyes as he looks over the others.

Rogue's arrival causes him to blink in surprise but then he looks...visibly relieved. Of course she coudl get here rapidly. The girl can fly so fast she'd cause eardrums to rupture just from passing people by. Her presence signifigantly adjusts the scenario.

That soft thump was indeed noted as well..

"Sara.." The dour, tall man turns towards the department chief., "I believe a direct approach may not be out of the question. We have the speed and the defensive options to intervene and get to the hostages out while keeping their captors sufficiently confused in the process.. Rogue and Evan could provide protection and cover for the hostages while we draw their fire and I can move with superhuman speed as well. I'm not against using the sewers but attempting to navigate the tunnels to find an entrance that brings us into the building may add time on the clock we don't' have and we dont' know if they have those potential entrances sealed off. We may have to bust in regardless."

Luca Bandoni has posed:
Luca jerks his arm way. He's a good guy, he's way better than most, but he has a hot head sometimes - particularly when it comes to saving a life and even double so when it's the life of someone he cares about - the life of a kid he's grown so fond of that he thinks of him as a little brother.

"It's /Marcus/," he hisses in reply to Sara but he doesn't immediately try to rush in headlong again, not immediate.

It's Rogue that has his attention a moment later. "I like your plan." He likes that plan very much even if some part of him knows that Sara's right. It's so hard to feel like he's doing nothing, or not enough. He paces a few steps, hand rubbing at the back of his neck.

"If I'm too late..." He'll never forgive himself. It's hard to let go of the strangers he can't save - but someone he knows? Sara knows him almost better than he knows himself. She stopped him, for the moment, but he's a coiled spring of anxious energy just ready pop. She might not get the chance to hold him back the next time.
He would be best served by sitting this one out. He's too close to it, it's too personal. But the chances of him sitting it out are about the same as him hitting the lottery for a mil or so.

He paces back and forth like an animal trapped in a cage, both hands run back through his short cropped hair and lace behind his head. "C'mon, Sara," he nearly growls. "We can take those cameras out!" He's never used that tone with her - just another indication of just how tightly he's wound on this one.

"Yeah, I like this guy," he offers in response to Bishop. He doesn't care how, just someone get them in there /now/.

Evan Sabahnur has posed:
    Evan holds up the vial with a serious look on his face. "I think I know what's going on in there." He's changed his fingers into a small clamp so as not to put his fingerprints or DNA on said vial. He watches CSI, after all. He holds out the vial to Sara "Do you want this as evidence, or are we going in a less official direction?"

    He looks over at Luca and nods, "I'm right with you... I see these folks on a day to day basis, they're my friends. I just don't want to charge in there blind and give whoever's doing this a reason to harm or kill the mutants they have in there."

    To the group in general, he asks "Anyone have a telepath in their pocket? I can shrink down and get in, but I can't carry a radio with me if I do. I'd have to go in, scout, then come out again to report. Not exactly a quick process, and we don't know how bad it is in there."

    He nods once Bishop shares his ideas and replies, "If I can find them before you start your diversion, we're good. It becomes more of a problem if they are split up in different places in there. I'm pretty good, but I can only be in one place at a time."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Trained to deal with hot heads on the force, the 'go get em' guys that never listen, Luca's tones and rant are nothing new to Sara. The thing that makes them effective however, is that it's LUCA. She would move heaven and earth for the man if she could, and with Witchblade it's a possibility that she could. Right now she knew the man was hurting, that Marcus being just on the other side of those doors was killing him inside, but calm heads solve problems, hot heads create them.

Her eyes move to look the building over again, seeking out the camera locations, looking for even the smallest weakness in the defense... there wasn't one. "I'm officially moving from detective to Avenger," she states to those present, not that any of them really cared who she was representing. It mattered to her, it mattered in the eyes of the law, and so she had to make it clear. "Bishop's plan is the fastest, and likely the most effective. I could get a map of the sewers in seconds, but there's always the chance that recent changes won't show... so we make a the bold entry."

She looks back those present, only one was a face she didn't know, so she summed up. "If Bishop and I approach from opposite sides of the building, they'll have to divide their man power inside to deal with us. That will permit Evan, and I'm assuming Rogue," she offers the woman a nod of greeting. "Along with Luca, a chance to get inside. Finding the hostages is priority one, don't worry about destroying evidence on the way in, I'll deal with the legal aspects of this when those people are save and free."

Pulling a small plastic bag from her jacket pocket, she accepts the vial from Evan by having him put it inside. "Never hurts to have at least one piece undamaged."

Now she looks to Luca, dead in the eyes. "Stay behind Evan," she indicates the young man with a gesture of her hand. "Until you're sure you can handle anything coming your way. Remember, if they hunt down mutants for this, they know what you all can do, and they aren't afraid to do it." Her eyes scan each of the faces present. "I'd like you all to walk away from this... Bishop, call which side of the building you want, I'll take the other."

Most might expect at this time for the armor to go ripping through her clothing, but that's not what happens. In that moment as Sara heads for the side of the building Bishop didn't take, Witchblade went from bracelet to Gauntlet, over the sleeve of her jacket. Yes, he'd be watching and would keep Sara safe, but there was no need for armor against mutated humans, at least not yet.

Rogue has posed:
The Mississippi Steel Magnolia, the Mighty Woman, the Rogue? The Southern Belle! The one with the white streak for bangs, yeah, that one.

She cracks a lopsided grin toward Bishop, and offers him a upnod. "How you always find yourself in these things? You got the best intel on the planet for the absolute worst stuff." She chided her teamm mate, before she looked back to the others.

She nodded once to the Avenger in Sara, before her green eyes-- encircled by black eyeliner-- went to Evan. "You wanna stick close then? Once they do what they're gonna do, I'm just gonna go in through that door over there, I think." She motioned a dark gloved hand toward one of the points of entry on the building in-question.

As the others moved out, Rogue reached her hands up behind her head to readjust the dark chestnut lock of hair she had clipped back on the crown of her head. She stood not too far from the edge of the property, just an average Super Hero not far from a potentially terrible criminal mutant experimentation laboratory, waiting...

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The direct approach seems to be the consensus. There are kids down there being experimented on and whomever is doing it has been at it for months. Who knows how many have suffered for the length of time? The kids needed rescued and the people behind it brought to justice.
    Evan confirms what the stuff in the vial is ? probably made from the local kids. Was someone taking it outside here? Were they showing off how it worked?
    The building was reinforced enough they wouldn't have any worries on structural issues if they went to bust in. Smashing was likely faster than fiddling with a lock to break it, but that was definitely viable with the array of skills they had. But it definitely didn't seem like Luca would let them wait that long. Bishop had a plan and was charged up. He and Sara were circling around to opposite sides of the place, ready to make their way about and get the diversion setup.
    That was, however, before there was a loud, grinding CHEONG as one of the massive front doors used for taking in delivery trucks would start to open, grinding like the portculis to a castle might. And coming out of it were a trio of men armed with heavy guns and the look of men that knew how to use them. One with a huge purple mohawk and the lower half of his face a cybernetic jaw, the second one with four arms carrying four machine guns in them..
    And the third that Luca would immediately recognize as one of the street kids that had grown up on them. Been on them, been an adult up through them. Guy with shark style fins going up the middle of his back and with webbed hands, and far too big teeth in his mouth giving him a warped mouth. Smilston Dithersworth, aka 'Sharky'. That Luca had seen at some of the shelters in years past. That Evan would recognize as someone that hung around with the street kids all the time and played basketball with them.
    Suddenly how all of the street kids had been so deftly targeted, lead along, and tricked made complete sense. They had been betrayed.
    By one of their own.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
All the talking - it's taking way too long. Or at least in Luca's mind it's taking way too long. Every second is starting to feel like an eternity. This isn't what he does, it's not what he's used to. He rolls up on a scene, climbs out of a truck and assess and immediately tells everyone what they need to be doing, when and how.

Poor Even, tasked with making sure the man that Sara's known since childhood, the man that's always been there - the man that's so important to her that she /would/ move heaven and earth. And the man dancing on a hair trigger.

As far as powers go, Luca's land in the range of barely there. But he can do a few things, one of them might even be useful. He closes his eyes for just a second - stills his mind for just that second. When he's opened them again, there isn't any outward sign that anything's changed, but once he starts moving it'll be monumentally faster than he could have just moments ago.

Poor Evan.

"Yeah, whatever," he snips in Sara's direction. He doesn't mean it, honest. He'll feel bad later. "Can we just /go/?"

...

"Mother /fucker/." See now, Luca hangs with the boys, there's really no limit to what those boys - firehouse family - will say. But generally it's all in jest, all in good fun. It's really rare to hear Luca swear with so much /venom/. "These assholes are from the neighborhood."

Gogogogo! Everything about him is screaming JUST GO! He even takes a few steps as if he might be ready to take off at a run again.

Evan Sabahnur has posed:
    Evan rolls his shoulders, then concentrates for a moment. He expands himself to about seven feet tall, skin glinting like dull metal in the few lights in the area. "They may know what mutants can do in general, but I don't think they're ready for me." His face reshapes itself into a blank oval devoid of features. A humming voice comes from his general direction as his right hand expands into a huge hammer head, "Ok, think I'm about ready to go."

    As he watches, planning his approach to the building the door opens and at least one mutant he knows steps out, obviously working for the other team. The low hum forms words again, "That... is a disappointment. I've helped him in the past, and this is how he decides to repay the assistance he's gotten from other mutants."

    He doesn't look around at the others, simply humming "We go as soon as they start the party."

Bishop has posed:
"Affirmative."

Bishop's deep resonant voice grants acknowledgement and support of Sara's plan. He then reaches out a large hand to steady Luca, moving to rest his broad mitt upon the younger mutants shoulder.

"This is Saras op." he adds, his voice more gentle in contrast to his serious and dour face. Man can't help how he looks.

"Trust her." he adds. "We're going in."

He gives Sara a ndo, readdy to move when she is while using the energy that he's managed to store up to this point to begin boosting and bolstering his strength, reflexes and durability. Bishop's powers of absorbing don't come with an on or off switch. Even sitting in falling snow or standing in the rain gives him kinetic energy to pull in. Merely walking around, the shake and rattles of his motorcycle...everything. It might not be a full on charged shot from the likes of Cyclops but it'll let him bust through a warehouse wall...

And start doing some damage.

"Whenever you're ready." he says towards Sara, unholstering one of his X.S.E. Blasters and nodding for her to give the word.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
The appearance of armed guards doesn't change the plan, at least not as far as Sara is concerned. She selected a spot on the wall, called up Witchblade's strength and with a calm, <"Now."> into the comms, she started punching her way in.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue had to give Luca a stare for a lingering moment, while she fixed her hair up nice and tight. "We're gonna do our best, Mistah. Take some deep breaths, play it easy." She told him in her naturally sultry toned voice. She watched Bishop, and Sara, respectively head out, before she glanced toward Evan. "I'm gonna go take a peak..." She stated, which wasn't exactly part of the plan, but it didn't matter anyway.

Why? Because as she was half way toward the site, those strange Mutants erupted from the building, and made their presences known.

It caused Rogue to slow her approach, caused her to glance toward either sides of the building, before she simply smiled toward them when the sounds of conflict broke out.

"I think we're here to collect on a buncha bad deeds." Mighty Woman tokd the small group who had emerged. She glanced at Evan. "Stay behind cover..." She warned him, before she took flight.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Luca definitely wants to get inside and he has his chance as the big door opens. Also he is not allowed to watch ID4 anymore nor quote Jeff Goldblum. He's definitely ready and raring. And as the identity of the man coming out is confirmed, it's just the start of what's going to be a long night of disappointment with people.
    As Bishop goes to blast out one side of the place, the trio swear. The guy with the huge mohawk goes, "Fuckshit, no one touched the stuff did they?" Going to run in that direction with his machine gun out. "Sharky, Bullsky, you stay here." Yelling coming from inside at the explosion, and more screams echoing out. The thrum of a heavy diesel generator audible. Some heavy vans idling, various medical equipment strewn about the garage. What looked like someone's home meth lab on steroids.
    Before 'Bullsky' can reply, there goes Sara smashing in the other end, "Fuckers, I just wanted one quiet day. We better get paid extra for this!" Even as he goes to run in that direction, Bullsky going to arm all four automatic weapons.
    As she bursts in, Sara is met with about twenty or so kids that are restrained on various tables, tied up. The place reeks of human filth and people that have not bathed in weeks. Most of them are hooked up to needles. A table nearby has a set of bonesaws on it. Vials bubbling away with things taken from long tubes, and a large mixing machine has plasma cycling through it. A half dozen or so beings wearing facemasks and latex gloves go to scramble for cover while several guards go to meet her with blades, guns.. And several that are clearly enhanced beings of their own right.
    Sharky turns around to suddenly see the blue, growing form of Evan and goes, "Hey, you $##*!'er. I've always wanted to do this." He would grin very, very morbidly. Going to take out a large needle with a syringe filled with blue liquid. Going to stab it into his neck. And he would grow to the size of Evan. Teeth getting way, way more pronounced and dozens of spikes popping out of his body. "Let's dance." It would come out all stuttery as his teeth would be growing out jagged, at all angles, making his speech nearly indecipherable. Facing off with the approaching Rogue and the glowing blue boy, it was going to get really rough.
    Bishop going to lightly blast his way on in is met with a trio of men standing by a large generator who turn to face him. One wearing a suit and tie that were the standard fare of Maggia members. Another one that was wearing wraps all over his entire body, like a mummy with a set of thick rubber goggles on his face. The third being a huge-ass thug that stood malformed, big but hunched over with one oversized arm with muscles that made it look like he had one limb taken off Strong Guy.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
"And that's my /friend/ screaming," he shoots back in Bishop's direction. Again, he doesn't mean it and he'll feel bad latter. But this standing here talking about it is /killing him/ inside. The pictures he has in his mind of a teenage boy with a purple head too big for his body - laying there lifeless. It's almost more than Luca can stand. He can barely look at Rogue at this point and doesn't respond to her - what if their best isn't good enough?

He is not a cop - but he has enough of them in his family that he knows his way around a firearm. He's not a crack shot but he can hit center mass at a good distance every single time. He does not /like/ guns. In fact he loathes them. Luca's desperately tried to plug too many bullet wounds in his career to like them. That doesn't mean he doesn't believe they're necessary and that he doesn't have a permit to carry one. He slips his from the holster beneath his FDNY jacket. He even holds it like he knows what he's doing with it - two hand grip, barrel pointed down.

Once the building is breached, it doesn't take him long to completely forget what he was told and separate himself from Evan. He has to find Marcus, has to. Before it's too late.

Sara probably hasn't seen Luca move as fast as he does when those doors open - boosting his own physical abilities isn't an aspect of his gifts that he uses on the regular. But he's /fast/. He's also not one for taking a life, so the shots he fires off as he runs might hit a mark, but they're all non-lethal. Just find Marcus.

And he does.

The kid he's spent so much time with, the kid he's played video games with for hours, the one he's tried so very hard to keep on the right path, the one he's shot hoops with, the one with the absolutely /corny/ jokes and the biggest heart he's ever seen in a street kid is right there. Right there tied to a table, unconscious, bloody, pale and propped up so he can be drained of blood from his spine.

Everything else disappears as Luca approaches Marcus. He settles his sidearm down on the bed beside the kid and lays his hands on Marcus's bare arm. "C'mon kid," he murmurs softly. "Wake up." The words are spoken along with a push of his own bioenergy into the boy  -then a little more and a little more. "C'mon!" he repeats with more intensity.

Bishop has posed:
'Lightly blast' for Bishop is apparently, kicking his way right through the wall with a shower of plaster and cement sundering before his heavy booted feet and then the rest of him striding through as if he were cosplaying as Colossus or even Juggernaut albiet in a much more svelte form.

The homage to both bruisers is short lived however as he immediately brings his X.S.E. blasters up, rapidly looking over the room from behind his red tinted glasses - and then immediately unleashing a volley of precisely targeted and carefully aimed shots - not even bothering to give the thugs time to speak beyond their initial reactions and instead quickly targeting the concussive blasts of his blasters for the shoulders and legs of the suited men and whining another charge of shots up to prepare to turn them onto the oversized mutate and the one in the mummy wraps.

Apparently in the X.S.E. future version of law enforcement is indeed 'shoot first and ask questions' later.j At least they aren't kill shots as they would have been in his own time...

"Surrender!" he demands. Deep voice intoning the command -after- he's already fired. Yes, indeed, they do things the other way around in the distant future.

"Hands on your head and down on the ground. Now. Or...we can try taking it up a notch."

Evan Sabahnur has posed:
    Evan gives Sharkey a 'come here' gesture with his left hand, since the right is otherwise engaged. He sets his feet to await the rush of the now extra-mutated mutant, right arm in a ready position to swing that hammer. As Sharkey charges, Evan waits for the last moment... then vanishes. The extremely sharp eyed might notice a fly zip past Sharkey before Evan pops to full size behind his attacker and smashes the hammer with superhuman strength into one of Sharkey's kidneys, probably adding some momentum to Sharkey's movements.

    He does his best to redirect the mutant in Rogue's general direction, figuring people hitting him a few more times can only be a good thing. With the mutant now behind him, he rushes towards the door, wanting to get inside as quickly as he can to make sure as many of the kidnapped mutants as possible can be kept safe.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue did a double-take over her shoulder, to see Evan's current condition having changed. "Or don't.." She quietly muttered, truly not knowing the extent of that guy's powers. He was just a few years younger than she was, she thought, but they had never really had any long conversations to suss out the extent of one another's abilities. Such was the life, when you lived in a house with a hundred other souls at any given time.

The Belle's attention whent back to the one shouting at her with his quad-guns. Rogue just rolled her eyes, before she picked up the tail end of a car parked in the building's lot, then tossed it over to shield her from any shots that the man might take. She doesn't stop there, though, as she leapt in to the air, as shacky was moved in her direction. Sharky got a good old right-hook delivered toward his fangy mouth of teeth, before Rogue shot down toward the man with the four arms, intending to bull him over right in to the wall behind him, and let the combined double-punch of her fists, and the building behind him, take a hard double-hit against the man who dared to fire his quadruple weapons!

"Ya'll need to learn some damn manners, if ya ask me." Rogue added, as she swept herself off to the side, with her fists up and ready for more action.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
@emit In Sara's career with the NYPD she had seen a number of horrible, down right, disgusting things that humans do to each other. This however, just made number one on that list of things. Tapping her ear piece she dialed her precinct, the one where every officer in the building spent day after day looking out for, protecting, arresting, and helping mutants in Bushwick.

"Witchblade... I'm going to need to borr..." she doesn't get to finish that sentence, the tendrils of metal rip through her shirt and jacket to wrap her torso in the bare minimum of armor. It was rare for Witchblade to not choose to destroy everything on her person, but in this particular case there was no need for him to do much more, or so his instincts told him. It was enough, it protected her chest and shoulders, and if they managed to hit anywhere else she deserved what happened.

She knew that he didn't like to deal with humans, or mutants, the non-magical types, but even he was raging against the edges of her mind at seeing those children like that.

"You all done f**ked up!" she announces as she heads for the first of the guards. "Surrender now, or take the risk of being considered hostile!" If they do surrender, she won't attack, if they don't... well, metal batons to the head will help them do to so.

"Haze," she stated into her comm, speaking to her precinct second, but Luca, Evan and Bishop can hear her conversation. "Avenger 911, mutant children. We need a full hazmat medical unit and every available ambulance you can get. I'm looking at over thirty kids in need of medical attention yesterday." There is a brief pause, what Haze says unheard.

"Super team in place, removing hostiles now... stay on the line."

She knew by now that Luca was inside the building, that he was looking for Marcus, and that soon all hell would break loose. If Rogue and Evan kept one set busy, and Bishop engaged another, that meant she needed to cover her side of the building. "I swear to you, I'll be back," she says to the kids in the room, then heads for the door.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Luca runs in and sees Marcus. Poor, poor brutalized Marcus. Signs of a concussion on his head, forehead bleeding massively and no one having even tried to stop it. Needles in his back. Given the general sloppiness o the place, almost guaranteed to have some really bad infections from untreated injuries. A tube fed to his back, drawing out blood from it in wheedles and spittles, despite the chaos going on.

Several of the 'workers' seemed to have gone for duck and cover, one of them making a grab for a bonesaw. "Shitter, stop where you are!" As Luca would race forwards, pleading towards Marcus.. "Or your lil bro gets to blow." Semi-automatic weapon, flicked on to 'spray' held about three inches from the kids' head. "Or I ventilate him. And I'm going out of here." All his thumb had to do so much was to twitch and send bullets flying in. Luca had no doubt seen what close range semi-automatic weapons fire did to someone's head. Not that there would be much of most left.

Bishop is face to face with three men. Or two men and one mummy. Or two men and one giant malformed man that had muscles on one half his body that made it look like a balloon. The Maggia man would smirk, "Sorry copper. It's over your dead body. Thumper, flatline him. Spooky, playtime." The massive armed man called 'Thumper' would go to pick up his huge fist and go to charge towards Bishop, intent on giving the ground a massive Thing styled -SMASH-! Meanwhile, the one called 'Spooky' would go to immediately start stripping, yanking off the bandages all along his body and then old school Invisible Man style be completely unseen with them off. The Maggia Man going to quickl yduck behind the generator.

Sharky has no real sense of what the normally quiet and reserved Evan can do. Evan is to him just that passive weird kid that you ignore or occasionally shake down for lunch money if you're feeling like a bully on a given day. So when Evan goes to turn invisible even the serum-enhanced Sharky that's gone sadistic can't help but realize he's way out of his league here. As Evan goes to yank, flip, and then smashball him in the air towards Mighty Woman!

Rogue gets the windup, and the pitch.. And the old double fisted haymaker goes to lay him out hard over into a wall with a crunch. The Sharkinator got himself reeled in. And Barsky's guns did nothing at all to Rogue, any wild fire he got pinging off and ricocheting even as she went to make him street pancake. There was chaos afoot inside, but now no one left outside. Time to go in and help everyone. Screams and gunfire echoing outside from the melee within.

For all the monstesr, the demons, the gods that the Witchblade had faced, sometimes one needed a reminder htat humanity was the worst of the evils. What humans could do to themselves.. Humans, mutants, cyborgs; all cooperating together without issue. Locals turning against their friends to help capture them for experimentation. All it took was a mutual cause everyone cared enough about that overrode all else.

Money.

As Sara went through her completely terrifying transformation, half the men in the room would just flat out stare at her. Several of those who had been working along the experimental line of the tied down,t ortured kids would just start to run, intent on getting out of there as fast as possible. One with a gun would drop it. The rest? The rest would just pick up whatever weapon they had (Or they were) and go on the attack at her.

Luca Bandoni has posed:
He's so caught up on trying to heal the boy, shoving more and more of his own energy - of /himself/ into the kid that Luca doesn't even notice someone else approaching, not until there's a gun aimed at Marcus's head.

People often talk about a perfect storm - the perfect conditions for something to happen and that something generally isn't good.

Tonight Luca Bandoni is hit by the perfect storm. It's a storm of fear, desperation and /rRage/. How can /anyone/ do something like this? Why the fuck is the world so /evil/? He knows it's not always - he knows it's not /everyone/. He works with some of the best men to walk the earth. It takes a certain kind of selflessness to run into the situations they do as just plain old humans. But in this moment, he's only seeing the ugly.

Rage is what turns the storm perfect.

With a snarl that doesn't even sound human, Luca turns on the monster that's a party to all of this ugliness. With his now inhuman speed, Luca has enough of an edge to snatch the end of that weapon and shove the barrel upward. He's never boosted two of his physical abilities at once, but he shoves energy into his strength now to go with that speed. He isn't even /thinking/ when he rips the gun from the the bastard's hand only to snatch his wrist and snap it - and hold on after. His free hand reaches for Marcus, making contact with the boy's bare arm again.

These people almost took Marcus from this world and now he's going to take something from /them/ or at least one of them. With a yell of anger that's more a roar than anything - Luca becomes a conduit between his friend and the monster. Immediately his arteries begin to glow blue beneath his skin while his veins turn black as he pulls steals the energy from one body and gives it to the other. It takes but a moment before Marcus begins to stir and only a moment longer before the gunman's skin grows pale and just a moment longer before Luca's boosted strength fades away - allowing the monster helping to facilitate all of this to pull away. Too weak to stand, the man falls to his knees and then falls sprawled out on the ground.

He should stop, Marcus is stirring, the boy will probably be fine. He should stop. But Luca is so caught up in it - that he can't. Blue begins to fade and be replaced by black until every vessel in his body is just black. Even when the Marcus wakes up, yelling at Luca to stop - fear in his own voice, fear for his 'big brother', Luca can't stop, his grip locked white knuckled on boy's wrist. He doesn't stop until he stumbles away, trips over the prone form of the gunman and hits the floor - motionless.

Marcus screams ring through the air again, but this time they're different. This time it's fear, not pain. "Luca! Luca get up! Please! GET UP!" The kid tumbles off the bed, but gets his feet beneath him easily. He's more than fine physically - but at what cost. "WAKE UP!" he bellows through tears and a rising sob that threatens to close his throat.

Evan Sabahnur has posed:
    Evan heads into the building, then hears footsteps running in his direction. He plants himself, prepares to unleash the hammer on whoever comes around that corner... and then a couple humans appear, trying to escape. He shakes his head, lowers the hammer and leads with a punch from his left hand. Given that it's still metal even though not a huge hammer, one thug drops. He trips another while moving in to carefully hit the third with the hammer, dropping him to the ground. He takes two steps and kicks the tripped one in the head, knocking them out.

    Hopefully they'll stay unconscious until the police can collect them, but he's more worried about the victims at the moment, so leaves them lying there before heading deeper into the building. Now with a better idea of what he'll be dealing with, he reforms his hand from hammer to taser, electricity buzzing between it's prongs.

    Evan really doesn't like hurting people, but sometimes these things are necessary.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Those that ran would get away, at least for now. Those that dropped their weapons, were left to either run or just stand there. Sara focused all of her attention on those that moved to attack her. A metal baton in each hand she starts aiming her blows for elbows, knees, and heads, and in the course of it taking a couple of blows to the armor. One manages to get in a good shot just below the armor, which only causes Witchblade to extend the armor down over her hips.

As the last of the 'hostiles' go down, a sound reaches Sara's ears through the chaos of combat all around the building. Normally she wouldn't have been able to hear it, but even as she is registering what is being said, Witchblade is already finishing his task of covering the rest of her body in armor. As the wings spring out from her back, she is already going /through/ the unopened door.

It didn't matter what was happening beyond that door, it didn't matter who was left to fight. If someone got in her way as she followed Marcus's cries for Lucas to get up, they took a baton to the head.

<"Haze, get those ambos here NOW!"> She screamed, and for the first time ever... there was panic in her tone.

Witchblade could triangulate the location of the boys voice, and the fasted way was through the wall directly to her right. A charging run was all she needed to burst through, into the man with the hair trigger who had no way in the world to expect a wall to explode with an armored woman behind him. The tackle was not at all planned, it was really more she used the bastard to slow down, fall onto him, then roll back up onto her feet... and one hit to the head just to ensure he didn't get back up.

One look was all it took and Sara knew, knew to her very core what Luca had done. Kneeling beside him, she took a quick look toward Marcus and said in a calm voice that did not match the expression on her face, "He'll be alright, but I have to get him to the hospital, now... and you're come with us. Get close to me."

Hooking her arms under Luca's body, she lifted him with ease as she stood up, attempting to keep the scream inside of her right there, inside. "Put your arms around me," she then instructed Marcus. Whether he listens or not, tendrils of metal slide out from the armor to wrap around the boy's body and hold him against her own, or pull him against her... either way, he was going with her.

<"Bishop, I have to get Luca to the hospital now."> She states, again more calmly than she was feeling, and without another word to anyone, she lifts herself into the air, turned her back toward an outside wall, and flew /through/ the wall and out.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue had to spend a minute outside, busting the machine guns of the four arm man that she had knocked them loose from. She stomped, squished, and twisted her metal boots over the weapons, ensuring they were summarily destroyed. Once their magazines were picked up, and tossed in to a trash bin not far from the entrance, the Southern Belle followed Evan in to the building. "You certainly can do more than I thought," She told him a few steps behind him.

Once inside, Rogue, Mighty Woman, looked around the chaos within the facility. "God all mighty, what have ya'll come across in here?" She had to utter, as she moved deeper within, inspecting the place, and stepping out of the way of people running to leave. She wasn't here to stop them, she hoped anyway.

"Ya'll really find the absolute worst places..."

Bishop has posed:
"Less monolouging. More writhign in pain please."

Bishop's deadpan voice echoes out in the aftermath of his initial blaster fire. Somehow the Maggia members had managed to get those quips and orders out before his concussive blasts tore through ones leg and the others shouldres.

Must be some sort of cosmic accident there. Bad guys have to have a chance to monologue.

Either, his shoot first and ask questions later did the trick, particularly before one was able to get behind the said generator.

Thumper and Spooky on the other hand ...might be a problem and Bishop has little time to entertain problems.

His blaster is spinning around in his hand as he lunges into an evasive move, pushing both X.S.E. training and his enhanced physique to the test as he leaps upwards just as the fist comes slamming down. The earth shakes and the warehouse floor splinters as the shockwave from the blow goes racing outwards. Probably not good for the downed Maggia that.

The kinetic force of the wave ripples into Bishop, further charging him. The inertia on the other hand, sends him slamming into the wall besides the generator, cracking it wildly with his impact and briefly stunning him. He hits the ground, dazed but quickly regaining his senses.

"Sorry friend, I've been shoulder checked by stronger then you before...."

Bishop swings, plunging his hand into the generator with a sound of metal wrenching and sparks flying as he seizes hold of the internal components and begins drinking deep of the energy being used to power the warehouse. Lights flicker and the whine of power begins to fill the air like the sound of a kaiju charging up an attack.

"..But I'm on a timer here..." Bishop quips before bringing his free hand up and suddenly discharging a multicolored wave of concussive energy from it, sending it washing over the room in a massive blaze of force. 'Thumper' may be the main target - but if he's lucky he might just catch Spooky in the wake of the blast of power.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
People are monsters. People are horrible. People torture and abuse one another for petty reasons. Here, some of the worst of humanity is at hand. But also some of the best. People from Mutanttown who went around putting out fliers. Kids that gave out info no matter the risk to themselves. People from the local shelters who came to help along with out of towners. Mutants and heroes. Firefighters and cops. Everyone coming together. To stop these monsters in their midst.

Even without all the chaos Evan could go in without anyone noticing and drop them easily. With all the chaos and fighting, it's simplicity itself. Targets are taken down before they can do anything else to threaten victims and are left there for the cops to come and deal with. Cops that until Sara had just made her Avengers 911 call had been suspiciously slow. Prejudices even in small things like this weighed heavily.

Sara is in her way through the wall, through everything else in the way to get to help Luca. Past the monsters. Past the kids. Past everyone else. There is just the three of htem; Luca having pushed himself well past his limit and making a choice that in life he might have never made if not for this, and might regret much more. And Marcus. Who tried to help. And was a victim. And is now seeing a good friend that pushed themselves to near death to come and save him and help.

The best of humanity.

Rogue is arriving outside as some rushing out just skipped right on past her as there were sirens coming. They wouldn't be getting far; for once, after all of this. She's seeing plenty of kids in horrible shape even as those who were opening fire on Witchblade were stunned and disoriented by her just smashing past them. Now they're going to draw up guns and put attention on the Southern Belle as the next target.

The Maggia and his men are good. They know how to fight and have clearly done it together plenty of times. Likely bodyguard and assassin to someone higher up the food chain. So when they go in and ready to monologue, Bishop is there and ready to bust them. The boss really should know better than to announce his plans in front of someone with a gun aimed at him. It goes about as well as the well trained, veteran soldier from the future turned cop could hope for.

Smashed generator giving him a charge, energy pulled in and then used to send 'Thumper' flying, and by the sound of cracked bone the flail had taken out Spooky as well somewhere in that almost bowling pin pile. The Maggia Man was unconscious on the ground too, contorted over. The sound of gunfire coming from Rogue's direction and some more chaos within were the only sounds now for him and Evan as they secured the perimeter, perhaps ready to go on in the rest of the way or turn to the kids.

Bishop has posed:
It would seem that the methods of a dystopian future are appropriate here. X.S.E. Protocols: 1 - Maggia and Thugs: 0.

Bishop stands up, looking over the room and giving a cursory glance to make sure that they're still breathing - it wasns't meant to be kill shots after all - and then he pings his comm sys and links up to Sara's radio.

"My perps are down. I'm coming in."

IT sounds like Evan and Rogue have matters well in hand and no doubt Sara as well. If the circumstnaces of children being in danger weren't so dire...this could -almost- be overkill. Almost.

As testament to that, he turns and kicks for another wall, moving to burst through it and head further into the warehouse interio.r and to lend aid wherever else it may be needed.

Evan Sabahnur has posed:
    The humming voice replies quietly to Rogue "I've been experimenting quite a bit. We might want to talk about the interesting facility under the school fairly soon." Shortly after comes the room the kids are in.

    Finding that room stops Evan cold, even as one last guard runs past him to try and escape before the cops arrive. It's probably good that he smoothed out his facial features (no eyes, nose or mouth means gas and flash grenades do nothing) otherwise he'd have tears running down his cheeks.

    Looking around and verifying that no bad guys remained, he shrinks back into himself, taking a few deep breaths to try and control his emotions as he starts checking the kids. He doesn't mess with the equipment in/on them as he's no trained doctor, so instead he just stays near them, murmuring comforting phrases as he waits for the medics to arrive.

    Once the first responders arrive, he heads outside and sits down on the curb, shaking his head, "How can people _do_ that to someone. It's just... sick." He stays long enough to give a statement to the police before heading back to Hope House in the form of a bird. He just wants to be away from... _that_ for a bit.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue had been following Evan, until those men with machine guns took note of their presence. She didn't need a Seventh Sense to warn her about the incoming danger, before it happened, to see what they were about to do.

Just before the super loud rattatttatat of machine gun fire filled the building's interior, Rogue kicked up a nearby table, casting it up in to the air to utilize it as cover. She leapt right at the underside of said table, pressing herself up against it, as the bullets began to pepper the wood, splintering it, and casting wood shards all around her. Rogue, squeezing her eyes shut, felt bullets popping off of her body, slapping against her suit, and bouncing in different random directions.

"God, damnit, I hate guns!" The Belle shouted, as her hands squeezed the edge of the table, her body swinging it around, as she began to hit every single person shooting at her with a rifle. She began to hit them with care abandoned, trating them as nothing more than moles popping up out of holes on a whack-a-machine.

A series of thumps, began to fill the air of the building, replacing each machine gun toting madman, as the Mississippi Belle utilized the table as her mallet, and their heads as her targets!

"Learn, some, damn, manners!" She shouted, before dropping to the ground, and tossing the shattered table aside. 'I'm a lady. ya don't shoot ladies..." She added, before her gloved hands began to dust herself off from the various chips and splinters that dusted her form.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The ambulances are finally arriving, as are the officers as the last of the threats in the place go down. Now there are downed kids, a downed Luca.. And an infinite amount of trauma to go amongst the rest of them. They're kids, they're strong.. They can make it. Hopefully. But will they get lost again in the system and spat out? That's a rougher story to tell ahead of time.
    Rogue and Bishop take care of everyone else, dusting themselves off and dealing with anything else that so much as looks at anyone wrongly as they thump, blast, and bludgeon their way across. Now there's just moans of pain, the occasional muffled scream.. And the chaos of the aftermath that is a brutal melee amongst drug dealers and rescuees.