6863/Preaching in the Park

From Heroes Assemble MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Preaching in the Park
Date of Scene: 09 July 2021
Location: Central Park
Synopsis: An anti-mutant protest takes a deadly turn
Cast of Characters: Hope Summers, Ben Grimm, Thomas Blake, Clarice Ferguson




Hope Summers has posed:
It's a warm, sunny day in Central Park. And naturally that means there are lots of people out and about, enjoying the sunshine. Among them are a group of mutants, some kids who are sticking together, knowing that even in the middle of the day, things can be dangerous when there are haters around.

Unfortunately for them, today is a good day for a group of mutant haters too, who match in on the park, waving flags that say 'No more mutants!' and 'The End is coming!' They are headed by a man in a long purple gown and a megaphone as they match around the perimeter of the park, stirring up all sorts of trouble.

There is a stage set up in the center of the park and they are slowly making their way towards it but taking their time, handing out flyers that explain why mutants are dangerous.

Ben Grimm has posed:
Ben Grimm decided to get out of the tower and get a bit of fresh air. Ben wanted to have a little air without people bugging him, so he is wearing the universal disguise. A trench coat and a fedora, cause of course it will hide the walking wall, and make people think he is normal. He has stopped and getting a few pretzels from a vender, looking up hearing the chanting.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake is sitting with his back to a tree enjoying the warm day. A small cat steps towards him, plainly curious and Thomas extends his had for a cautious sniff. He is deemed acceptable the head rubbing commences on Blake'd hand and thigh. The man obliges the cat. One of the evangelistic leaflet walks over with a leaflet and the green eyes turn cold.

"I don't want your leaflet and you don't want to get your legs broken. Keep moving."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    Clarice has never been one to hide. In her mind - the more people see mutants out in the world - just living their lives - the more used to the idea they'll eventually get.
    I mean, maybe that they also see her on the news sometimes working side by side with Magneto undercuts that message a little, but the fact remains... Clarice, with her purply-pink skin strolls undisguised, her log and pointed ears showing through her equally purple hair, and her electricly green eyes peering out of her features, is leaning back against a tree in the park. In her hand she holds an ice cream cone - which she licks at periodically as she watches a group of children playing a game with a frisbee. She takes another lick from her cone as she tries to decipher the rules of the game - but it seems almost Calvin Ball in nature, as the children cry out that they've earned 'points' for everything from leaping over a sunbather - to touching a water fountain, and everything else inbetween.
    ...she doesn't get it.

Hope Summers has posed:
The mutant kids are also quite obvious, one with fur, one with red skin, one with a tail. They're not that old, barely teens, and maybe it was a mistake to come out here alone. They're quickly accosted by mutant haters who swarm them and yell at them to get out of their city!

More of them swarm Clarice, "Look, another Mutie freak! Get outta our town, freak!" they don't have weapons, they're here to inform, to stay within the law Afterall. But that doesn't stop them from spreading words of hate either.

Ben Grimm has posed:
Ben Grimm frowns at this and has no problem with most kids, even those Yancey street hoodlums aint to bad, though he would never admit it. Seeing the people moving to swarm around the group of mutant kids, he will start to stalk over in that direction. "Hey leave the kids alone." He calls out as he makes his way over that way.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake looks at the small cat. "'the fuck is wrong with humans?" The cat flees the noise and commotion, which annoys him further. "The Universe is against me staying out of trouble." He begins walking towards the disturbance. When a hater gets in his way, he keeps walking over him, making his way to the biggest and loudest one.

What is wrong with humans?

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Well aren't you all just the most charmingly hateful biggots I've seen all day?" Clarice mutters under her breath. She seems determined to ignore them, as she takes another lick of her ice cream - before she spots that another group of them have surrounded the children, and her expression darkens considerably. "Aww... com'on. Bullying children is not okay. Are you guys telling me you support child abuse?"
    She pushes away from the tree she's leaning against - and two things happen. First, the ice cream in her hand blinks out in a small flash of purple energy, appearing upside-down, just above one of the protesters near the children. So someone ends up with a splat of freezing cold ice cream in their hair.
    Then she herself disappears, to reappear just in front of one of the children who happens to be looking particularly overwhelmed and frightened. "We're okay here, kids," she reassures them. "No one's going to get hurt here today."

Hope Summers has posed:
The kids get scared as they're surrounded. The protesters ignore Ben and Thomas as they walk towards them, "Stay outta this, we gotta show the world what a threat mutants are!" One of them yells as ice cream pops on his head. "What the..Freak!" he yells and shakes a fist. But again this is a war of words, not fists.

Then something happens. One of the kids, the oldest and boldest of the four, steps forward. "Hey, leave us alone, we do t want trouble!" it's the one with bright red skin, and his fists clenched, skin seeming to glow intensely. As the protesters continue to attack with words and hit fists, calling them all sorts of names, he..,Well, explodes, literally.

His skin flares to life, taking on the appearance of intense flames, shooting out plumes at any who get too near. People start screaming in fear, backing away.

The leader has climbed to the stage by now and calls out in his megaphone, "See here humans, these mutants are untrained and dangerous. I have seen the future and here mutants will be the end of it. This is just the beginning. Come, sign this petition to have mutants regulated and registered, this cannot continue!"

Ben Grimm has posed:
Ben Grimm frowns as the kid ignites. He sheds his jacket, and says "Ok kid, you need to try to calm down, don't want to hurt anyone even these jerks." The Thing is a rather well known hero, and if he needs to he will lift some of the bigots out of the way moving to put himself between them and the kids. The flames don't seem to bother Ben to much almost as if he has experience with flaming hot heads.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake walks up to the biggest loudest bully. The second largest is picking himself up and wondering what happened? He had a good sixty pounds on him. Thomas keeps walking and gets a thick finger jabbing him in the chest "Are you a mutie lover, freak?"

Thomas shakes his head. "Nah. Not so much... I just don't like assholes... and you just added battery to assault."

<Fwud! Slam! Oof> Big cat like eyes open wide,b

Thomas walks over to the most adorable furry girl and grins, "I'm kind of a cat myself. Name's Thomas. C'mon I'll get you an ice cream while the heroes handle mopping up. What's your name?" He extends a very large and hard hand to her. Well maybe his flair with big cats will give hum some pull here?

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    Great. A hot-head. "Kid... kid, chill. Kid..." Clarice steps in close to the flaming mutant - and then abruptly both of them disappear, reappearing across the lawn in a large, open space. "Hey, kid," she says in a soothing voice. "I'm Clarice. I need you to calm down - and tell me you're good - so I can go back-up your friends. Okay?" she asks. "You okay here?" She stands so she can keep her eyes on the child in front of her - while her gaze keeps flitting towards the rest of the children, to ensure they're safe - and, you know, not setting anyone on fire or freezing them in blocks of ice.

Hope Summers has posed:
A lot of things happen. Firstly, several mutant haters immediately clear space for the Fantastic Four celebrity who is not just famous, but big, and really, none of them want to tick him off. One or two actually drop their signs and ask him fir an autograph! It's a good thing the flames don't bother Grimm. Between him and porting Clarice to an open area, he does manage to calm down a bit.

"I'm sorry! I just got sooo mad at those jerks! I just..,Just...!" he draws a few deep breaths, and does manage to extinguish his own flames although there's probably a garbage can or two that caught on fire. Maybe a person or two whose clothing or flyers caught on fire. That sure didn't help their cause. But at least he's under control now. "You're a mutant too, aren't you? How can you stand all this hate? Makes me Soo mad.."

As for kitty girl who seems to be taking the brunt of the teasings for her most obvious mutation, she shrinks back, a real sweetie, small and shy and with an admirable voice as she peeks up at Thomas. Who by the way totally kicked butt against the mutant haters,who are totally not gonna mess with him again.

"Umm..My name is Kitya. That's my big brother over there." she points to the fire starter. "Why are they such meanies?" she looks on the verge of tears until he mentions ice cream, then she beams, "Really? Can my friends come too? Those people are pretty scary.."

Ben Grimm has posed:
Ben Grimm looks to the group and says "You want my autograph, but you treat these kids like this? You realize when the FF and I came out to help people, people looked at me and screamed freak, monster, and words, I aint going to say in front of the kids, and now your asking for my autograph. These folks are just kids, and if you treat them like people, maybe they will remember it and treat folks worth a damn. " He looks over towards the man in the robes, and points his large mitt at him, "Thats what causes more problems, with mutants, aliens altered humans or what not hatred, and most time it is either jealous they don't have powers, or just can't stand people different. Trust me, I have seen people hated for their skin color, their religion, who they want to love, and now, for the genes they were born with and it is all just hogwash. You need to treat people like people, and if your an ass hate who is going to hate people, just cause, then be honest, and tell them you hate them not cause who they are but cause you have your head shoved so far up your own..." He catches himself "Butt, that everything stinks to you."

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake is relieved his remarks are taken seriously. He picks Kitya up and sets her on his shoulder. Any friends of yours are welcome. "Come on kids. You might hear some bad words but you will get a lesson in kicking butt." He steps to the side as one of the loud mouths rushes him from behind and adminsiters a quick kick in the butt, sending him on his way. The man turns around fists clenching.

"Listen, this little girl on my shoulders... sorry lovely tween, is keeping you out of the ER... because if I put her down... that is where I am sending you. You better raise up and do the smartest thing you've done all day. Leave." Kitya doesn't see the knife snapped into Thomas' hand. The man does and he backs away. The knife vanishes again.

"Don't let people drag you down Kitya. Cat people are very rare and special. I can only think of four or five. I'm only a cat inside ... can you see in the dark? Cool! Do you have a super sniffer? Awesome! Really? You can talk to them --of course I believe you! Hey you guys coming? We're leaving to get Hot Stuff over there."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Yeah," Clarice answers quietly. "They make me mad, too. But the more people who're afraid of us - the more people will hate us. They're //scared//." She reminds the boy gently. "More and more mutants are born every day. Humanity is changing - and they're being left in the dust. And that frightens them. We have to stand up for ourselves - without feeding their fear. Yeah?"
    She offers the boy her hand. "If you've got it under control - we can rejoin the others."

Hope Summers has posed:
Well this was an unlikely turn of events. Ben's powerful words stop many mutant haters in their tracks, "We're sorry, Mister Grimm! We didn't mean any harm!" and they flee. Some others just shake their heads, "My sister was hurt by a mutant! We can't let this continue!"

The fire starter smiles faintly at Clarice, "I guess you're right, I'll be more careful next time. Thanks!" he smiles and waves at her before joining his sis and two friends. Kitya is more than happy to climb into Catman's shoulders, smiling and waving to her other friends who join her. There's no point in sticking around here, these people are too stubborn to understand.

Unfortunately, there are onlookers who do join the protest and who do sign the petition. The preacher raises his arms to those who remain. "Hear me, we must be ready for what comes next! We must prevail, no matter how hard it is, for the future of mankind--Ahh!"

A shot is heard and he crumples not his feet. The shot was thankfully non-lethal, but it hurt a lot, injuring his arm instead of penetrating his heart. there is a lot of blood. One with a keen eye may notice a red headed figure dressed in a green body suit and ragged cape, lowering her big gun.

She should aim again, finish him off but maybe this was just a warning shot, a lesson to be learned. As it is, there is mass panic, people screaming and running in all directions. The fire starter rushes to check on his screaming and crying sister, "Let's get out of here!"

As for the girl? It seems she lingers close enough to a certain teleporter to pick up on her powers. With a smirk, she creates a portal and steps through, vanishing from sight. Not a total loss then. For fear may just turn him off his fated course, who knows?

Ben Grimm has posed:
Ben Grimm will move towards the man when he is shot, trying to protect him with his large bulk. He looks over to where Clarice was last, and says "Can you get this ass to a hospital?" He is asking the mutant to help the mutant hater yes, trusting her good will it seems.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "//Shit//," Clarice says passionately under her breath as the shot rings out. It's easy for Ben to turn to her for help - as the woman abruptly appears beside the shot man. Apparently her first instinct was also to put herself in the line of fire. Her gaze starts scanning the panicked crowds, looking for signs of familiar faces. This is just the sort of shit the Brotherhood would have pulled a few months ago. Just the sort of shit she'd helped talk them //out// of doing. Were any of her allies working as rogue agents in this crowd?
    It's the purple flash of one of her own portals that draws her attention, and she watches Hope step through. "How-" she starts, before calling after her loudly, "CHEATER!" Her voice drops to a quiet mutter. "Those're my damned portals."
    She lets out a sigh, then nods to Ben. "Yeah. I got him. I'll get this asshole some help," she agrees - before looking the man directly in his frightened, pain-filled eyes. "I just want to be clear - //I don't like you,//" she says firmly - before both of them disappear.
    They do indeed reappear in a hospital triage room. "Hey. Can someone help this asshole? He got shot for being a hate-filled scumbag." Message delivered - and good deed accomplished - she disappears once more.

Hope Summers has posed:
Well, this is an unexpected turn of events. Did anyone spot who shit that thing? At least it wasn't a fatal shot. A few people scream, a few flee. A few flock to their leader who curses in pain. But he's still alive, and rather ashamed as a mutant co,es to his rescue, even porting him to a hospital.

"Unhand me, mutant!" he snarls, and is only too grateful as some clerks come to his aid. There are questions if course, and who knows where this will end? Will he tell the truth, that mutants came to his rescue? Surely it must have-been a mutant who attacked him to begin with..

Either way, it seems this story has only just begun..