While the nation was reeling from the disaster at Manhattan, another case was making the headlines.   This one was of Ethan Myers.   Ethan was a sports teacher at Roosevelt high school.  Ethan is married.  Ethan is charged with ‘sexual misconduct with a minor’ of no less than two dozen young girls attending the school.   Ethan is a Mutant.

The case is brought before the court, and despite overwhelming evidence against him, including forensic, DNA evidence, and testimony, he is unanimously acquitted by the jury.  Almost immediately, conspiracy theories start flooding the web; Ethan is a telepath and used his powers to influence the Jury, as well as the young girls.   Or his defense lawyer was a mutant.  Or a mutant friend of his sitting halfway across the world interfered in his behalf.    The fact that every. single. one. of the jurors believed the law shouldn’t be applied in this particular case lent credence to the allegations.  But those were still allegations.  There was nothing the authorities could do.  No one could ever prove that the memories or opinions of the jurors were indeed influenced by Ethan, or anyone else for that matter.    The law, the police, the prosecutors – the entire justice system, were all (allegedly) ill-equipped to handle such cases.

What are ordinary humans to do?

It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.   Pictures from the disaster area at Manhattan were still on the evening news.  Quiet vigils for the dead. Flowers and funerals.  And now those were intermixed with the picture of a so-very-smug Ethan flashing the ‘V’ sign as he was being released from custody.

No speech from the President about ‘tolerance’ and ‘we’re all in this together’ could stop the protests, even if she was inclined to make yet another such speech two months before the election.  People demanded justice, and if they couldn’t get it from the authorities, they’ll have no other choice but to take matters into their own hands.   Police and protestors clashed in the streets, the Seattle courthouse went up in flames (because ‘what’s the point of having it, anyways?’), and mutants were harassed and bullied by the ‘friends of humanity’.

And then things got even worse.

A mutant boy by the name of ‘Fishy’ was found hanged out at the woods, an eagle carved into his scaly flesh.  He was barely fourteen, and never posed a threat to anyone (except, perhaps, crustaceans); an innocent victim that found his death because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time and was immediately recognizable as being a Mutant.

Now it was the mutants, and their supporters, turn to rampage on the streets of Seattle.  The national guard had to be called in, then the army, and lastly – the X-Men, when neither of the former could stop a man of immense size and girth from kicking cars off the highway as ‘payback’.   Even though he was eventually stopped, it only served to prove the point of those calling out for the government to do ‘something’ about the Mutant situation.

What that something was going to be would be determined in the upcoming election, and as the unrest continued maverick candidates started appearing on the polls on multiple states.

As bad things were, this was only the beginning.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:25, Fri 29 Jan 2021.

Zoey had been following the developments ever since she had become aware of them. It was hard not to be aware of them, given her surroundings and how intimate the news was to a majority of her fellow students.

Unlike some people, Zoey doesn't think marriage is somehow sacred and untouchable. Nor does she particularly care about age; love is love, and as long as the more mature party is being responsible and the younger giving their consent then everything ought to work out. "Informed" consent was, to her mind, something the Moral Guardians invented for the express purpose of taking it away from people who didn't even have the right to vote on the subject.

But this wasn't just one minor, there was a major imbalance of power between the parties, and consent may never have been involved. Worse, one of Zoey's favorite tools to fight against unjust laws -- jury nullification -- had just been corrupted by an ill-meaning party. Thoroughly disgusting. She wondered if this Ethan cocksucker understood what he had just done, and if not, how much worse she'd make the situation if she flew out to where he lived and forced him to.

Oh who is she kidding. She'd just get mind-controlled, and then Ethan would have supreme authority over the mind and body.

Zoey hugged her knees to her chest as she watched the latest news in the mansion's common room. She felt very small and very helpless right now. Even if she were as powerful as the giant xenohuman on television it wouldn't make that big a difference. This situation felt too impossibly huge for anyone to control.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:15, Sat 30 Jan 2021.

In reply to Zoey Fujino (msg # 2):

Kate had been sitting quietly in the corner, watching as Zoey pulled in on herself more and more. She didn't like it, and having been told off about it once already she glanced to make sure nobody was looking before shifting down to become her adorable tabby self.  Then squirming free of her cloths padded on quiet feet over to join Zoey in her lap, hopping up to cuddle with the distraught mutant radiating compassion and care, hoping to help make her feel better, fishgivinggirl definitely needed it.

Wandering in from the kitchen (where else?) Frank couldn't help but spot Zoey's body language as a red flag. Hers was the universal posture for 'everything in the world sucks'.

"What's wrong?" he asked, even as he noticed what the television was tuned to. "Oh."

The fat guy versus the X-Men. Was this the guy they called The Blob? Had to be, right? He was tougher than he looked, obviously, but that was as much to do with looking like a giant creampuff as his actual power level. He had to be tougher than he looked. But this wasn't what the story was really about, nor what Zoey was really reacting to. It was that guy Ethan at the heart of this disaster-in-progress.

"Mayyybe we don't watch this," he said, taking the TV remote and pressing the OFF button. He went to sit down next to Zoey, but held up when he noticed the empty clothes piled nearby, and the tabby in Zoey's lap. "Oh, hi Kate."

Kate would be way more of a comfort than Frank could be. Frank honestly wasn't even sure if Zoey considered him a friend or not. The two of them had never really talked all that much. She seemed a lot more comfortable around the other girls, at any rate.

He reached out to give tabby-Kate some quick head-skritchies, then backed off.

Zoey is briefly started by the intrusion of a tabby cat, but it is not an unwelcome intrusion. In the time since they'd met, the two girls had gotten pretty well acquainted. The way they could communicate their thoughts to each other without having to resort to inelegant and easily misconstrued words reminded her of the halcyon days before she'd become a mutant and had an actual friend to spend time with.

Was Tabby a friend? She sure seemed like a friend. Okay, sure, she's a friend.

Zoey absentmindedly strokes Tabby, pausing now and then to scrunch up and tug affectionately at that loose section of skin cats have behind their neck. She must have had kittens at some point in her life in order to know how much cats tend to enjoy that, because it's not something the casual cat-fan typically knows.

A voice pulls Zoey back to the world around her. "Hello Tank," she quietly greets the young man. She doesn't protest as the television is turned off, and in fact murmurs some manner of indistinct thanks. "Reckon we'll be deployed for realsies sometime soon? World's burning up out there... time to fight some fires probably."

"It feels like we might, yeah," Frank agreed. There were simply too many fires for the X-Men to put out without fielding some new members. It felt as though the plan was to field Zoey, Kate, Ana Sofia, (maybe Barnell) and Frank as some sort of junior team. He wondered if this was a good idea, rather than add them to the current roster and then break out into teams with a couple of veterans and a couple of newbies each. But maybe it made sense. After all, the original team of X-Men didn't go out with training wheels on. There weren't and veterans for them to lean on. They trained for a while and then went out and fought Magneto, of all people.

Magneto. There was a guy Frank hoped he'd never have to face. That guy was powerful beyond belief. All Frank could do was punch people.

"I wonder if the older X-Men felt ready to go out and fight bad guys when they first started. They were younger than us, but they went out and they did it."

The supersonic boom that rattled the window frames didn't draw more than a shrug from the other students at the common room.  It was the Blackbird, the no-longer-secret jet that the X-Men used for their forays across the globe.   In the last month, the loud bangs of it crossing the sound barrier were an almost daily occurrence.  Sometimes even twice a day.   Seeing the aircraft taking off has therefore wore out whatever novelty it had a long time ago, to become something of an annoyance - especially when it disturbed one in the middle of a night's sleep.

Zoey opened her mouth to say something, but it gets forgotten as yet another boom rattles her delicate ears.

"God fucking damn it!" she yells, ironically probably louder than the actual event she's complaining about. She curls up into a ball of pain, inadvertently dislodging a doubtlessly indignant Tabby. "There are aerospace regulations, assholes!" She isn't sure what it is about sonic booms that make them hurt more than normal explosions; she's certain there's some fascinating biological phenomenon involved that interact with her sensory hypersensitivity in exciting ways, but there's just so much to read up on these days that she doesn't have the time.

From somewhere deeper in the mansion, a boy's voice yells down at her to shut the fuck up. Zoey pays it no mind.

Kate was getting at least as much relaxation out of her time in fishgivinggirl's lap as Zoey was getting relief from her presence.  She had just started purring when Frank showed up.  Hearing her name her head perked up, eyes went from half slited to alert but beyond that didn't shift or even stop purring, butting her head into his fingers when he gave her some extra scritches.  'Ooh three hands...' leaks out to the others for a brief moment.

She wrinkled her nose a bit as the topic of conversation comes up.  That was a mess she wasn't eager to go get involved with.  She picked up from Frank's tone that there's something at least troubling him too.  Unfortunately unless they all moved to a couch there was only so much Tabby to go around.  This would take ugh...talking.

About to do so the boom made her startle and shoot a glare through the wall in the direction of the hanger, even though it was obviously out of sight and through walls.  'Stupid plane.'  The times it had startled her was starting to reach unfortunately high numbers.  That this time corresponded with her getting dumped to the floor was just icing on that ugly cake.

Taking the moment to stretch out her spine she walked over to Frank and twisted between his legs for a moment scenting to see where he had been recently.  'I hope when we do get dropped in it we don't have to fly anywhere.  I want to stay in walking distance of home.'  It was almost a surprise to her that she had begun to feel that way about the mansion, but she did.  It was home, warmth, safety.  It even had friends.

But for now she tried to figure out which one to deal with first.  Zoey was in pain, but Tank seemed conflicted... which one which one... her head turning back and forth between the pair.

Zoey's always in pain about something or other. Some days it almost seems like she's on a constant lookout for shit to get offended over, though for those who had taken the time to get to know her it had become clear that she really was on that much of a sensory hair-trigger at all times and just not-shy enough to not want to keep her displeasure to herself. Not the best combination of traits. She was also tougher than she acted though, and always recovered given some time, quiet, and solitude.

"Sorry Tabby," Zoey apologized for what was probably the fifth or sixth time this had happened. The words were starting to sound a little hollow to her, especially given that she knew the cat-girl could feel the contrition well enough without words. Her eyes flick to Frank, lips moving in several conversational non-starts. She finally gives up and just asks "what were we talking about?"

Ana Sofía has been quiet while the news has been ongoing. But with everyone next door she certainly heard the conversation while she was preparing fish tacos. When she hits a little break she follows Frank into the other room. "So, Zoey, have you ever wondered how they gave that plane VTOL capability without fundamentally changing its design?" She then responds to Frank, "I don't think I want to go fight bad guys. Practice this summer wasn't great, and this guy scares me more than Sauron did, even if Sauron had been real. José's the hero of my family, not me." More to everyone she says, "Fish tacos in 15 minutes." And finishes with a comment directed more at Frank, "We'll see if I can help add some more to that fine muscle of yours," followed by a slightly lingering look as she turns to head back into the kitchen to return to the stove.

In reply to Ana Sofia Garcia Mendez (msg # 11):

Ana's intrusion wasn't particularly helpful in making up Kate's mind on what to do.  At least until she spoke some magic words, fish tacos.  The first time she had made them Kate was just confused.  Coming from the Midwest where the fight was between Taco John's and Taco Bell over what was more authentic Mexican, the idea of a fish taco hadn't really computed.  Now however those words meant something, and that something was that she was terribly underdressed if she wanted her fair share.

There was a question in the back of her mind about Jose, but it was forgotten almost as soon as it got there as she darted from her spot at Franks feet, beneath Zoey's chair and over to the pile of her cloths.  She took one look over to make sure the big comfy chair offered enough cover before shifting.  If he didn't move the best Frank would get to see would be the occasional flash of a bare ankle or arm reaching out to snatch at the discarded cloths as she hurried to dress.

"You don't think she told everyone do you?"  Kate asked from behind the chair, as she lived her best life, concern over the moment and food!
This message was last edited by the player at 22:49, Mon 01 Feb 2021.

Frank blushed at Ana Sofia's mildly salacious attention, then blushed more as Kate started getting dressed behind the shelter of a chair. He supposed she hadn't taken into account just how tall he was... so he backed away to help maintain her modesty.

"Told everybody what?" he asked. "About the tacos? Probably."

"I assumed it was the same bullshit magi-tech they used in the Danger Room," Zoey replies. "What I always questioned more than that was why they picked a Blackbird to mod. It was never the most practical aircraft; frankly I marvel that someone had ever been insane enough to design it." She had been into aircraft, once, when she was younger. A lot of that had faded away now though.

"Are you using those walleye I caught the other day for your tacos? I had been planning to grill those!" Not that she would object to their use in tacos either. She had certainly forgotten to label them...

In reply to Zoey Fujino (msg # 14):

Now dressed, well mostly, Kate was darting around the chair, only mostly dressed because it looks like she put her shirt on backwards and is currently imitating a turtle, pulling in her arms, so she can twist it right way round all while on her way after Ana.

"Are you coming or should I sneak a plate for you guys?"  Kate asks, pausing at the door to the hall as her arms pop back out of her sleeves, the t-shirt on right this time.  'I could meet you somewhere more quiet than the kitchen or dining room if you want to avoid people' she lets just Zoey know.  Her skills having gotten a bit better with some practice.

Without turning around from the stove Ana Sofía replies to the question, "Don't worry, Zoey. I use white fish, like abue taught me." She's just now removing the fish from the stove and apportioning it between the many soft taco shells that are already partly filled. "Uno momento."

Zoey breathes a small sigh of relief for her walleye, and she also takes a note from the best cook in the mansion that her fish aren't good for tacos. Zoey does like to cook her own food, especially if she caught it herself, but she has no illusions about being any good at it. She could probably learn a lot from Ana.

Cooking is chemistry but for hungry people, after all!

She senses the unspoken question from Kate and waves it away, sending back cautious confidence. I need to learn to eat with the "team" if this is going to work, she explains.

Cooking was one of the things that Frank knew nothing about. He understood the chemistry, but not the artistry. So he resigned himself to helping in the best way he knew how: staying out of the way, except to bring out a stack of plates.

"Hey, I have a question for you three," he said suddenly. "If we do become X-Men... do any of you have code-names picked out?"

Setting up the table proved to be pointless.  Like a swarm of locusts, the children descended upon the kitchen as soon as the smell of freshly baked tacos made it to the dorms.  They circled Ana, little hands snatching the food straight off the tray

“‘a’woma”  John-John was trying to suggest a call name for Kate (even though it was none of his business), but speaking with his mouth full left him barely intelligible “'o' shoul’ ‘efini’ely ‘o as ‘a’woma” 
This message was last edited by the player at 18:50, Wed 03 Feb 2021.

"Back, you savages!" Frank mock-cried out, making a whipping gesture with his empty hand. He laughed at the chaos. "Back, I say!"

Then he looked up, as though focusing on something far away.

"I gotta go," he said. He turned to leave, not even trying to grab a taco before they were all gone. "Think about what I asked, though. It might become important."

With that, he stepped out into the hall and began a half-jog to the Professor's office.

Ana Sofía took care not to trip over, knock over, etc. any of the smaller children as she tried to transfer the big platter to a table. "Enjoy! I've got to go." Seeing Frank head out ahead of her, she quickly glances at the other older students to see which of them might also be heading toward the professor's office. She doesn't race there, but she does head immediately there at a quick walk.

Zoey frowns at mention of code names. She still remembers what had been said prior their first Danger Room mission. "I do not want a code name, because I feel like it creates an unnecessary division between mutants and genetypicals... but at the same time, there's bad people out there who would try to use our identities against us. Maybe just... Red, I guess." Like the Pokemon trainer!

A voice in her head makes Zoey look around. This was something she was rapidly becoming used to. From the look of things, the others had heard it too. "Oh yeah, some extreme firefighting action all up in this shit," she mutters, the word choice significantly more jovial than she felt. She, too, heads to meet Professor Xavier, cradling a fish taco in a paper towel the whole way.

In reply to Zoey Fujino (msg # 23):

Kate luckily forwarned had already gotten herself a plate, with MULTIPLE tacos that she guarded deftly, mostly through jumping up to sit on one of the counters so that with it's added height she was safe from smaller hands and limited reach.  That Ana quickly drew the attention away towards the table only made her position safer.

Contemplating the thoughts on names she, unlike John John finished her bite before speaking.  "What's a'wona mean?" trying to figure it out though she now knows better than to actually pry with her slowly burgeoning mental powers.

At Zoey's comment she laughs.  "Well then maybe I could be a'wona-mon." Having picked up on that thought easily enough, given how much more attention she typically paid fishgivinggirl and her thoughts.  It didn't even feel intrusive to Kate to have picked up on it.

It was a little bit of a surprise when the others started to make their excuses, especially before they even finished eating.  Still Kate stuck to her spot and gave them a wave.   "Um, bye, have fun storming the castle?" Her confusion about their departure evident as she quoted last weekends movie night movie to give her bemused encouragement.

Frank was only a few steps from the Professor's office when he realized he was being followed. He turned over his shoulder and saw Zoey and Ana Sofia behind him. He stopped to allow them to catch up.

"Didn't realize you'd been summoned, too," he said as they got closer. "He looked back past them. No Kate...?"

"I think that's more of a Digimon name... hey, you're not coming?"

In reply to Zoey Fujino (msg # 26):

Kate just shrugged, like she knew pokemon from digimon.  They were Japanese cartoons, that was about as far as she followed them.  "Um, where?" was her elegant and illuminating response to the question.  "If you're in trouble with the professor it wasn't me and I had no part in it..."  She's actually paused to try and think if she had done something to get in trouble lately but coming up blank went on. "Yup, I haven't done anything lately at all.  Do you need to hurry, should I come with?"

Frank, Zoey, Ana, all make it to the Professor’s office together, to find both him and McCoy (now fully recovered), with grim expressions on their faces.  McCoy peeked outside and looked down the hallway to see if anyone was nearby before he closed the door behind the small group, and nodding for the Professor to proceed.

“Thank you all for coming” Xavier didn’t take it for granted that they were willing to drop everything and come running just because he asked them to.  If only he was sure they will stay, after hearing what he had to say next

“We have a serious situation at hand” he exhaled softly before continuing:
“Two hours ago, I’ve sent the X-Men on a mission to defend a nuclear power plant from being overrun by a group of radical mutants. It is only now that I realize that the attack was merely a diversion, meant to lure the X-Men away.  Nomans Land, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, is a government military facility.  It, too, is currently under attack.  I fear something far worse than a nuclear meltdown might occur if we don’t intervene.  And fast”

Zoey frowns, but it looks like Kate hadn't been invited. That seemed like an oversight to her, but Xavier didn't seem the sort to make those kinds of mistakes. "Ah... nevermind I guess. Sorry. I'll fill you in after!" She hurries off, unwilling to keep the Professor-in-Chief waiting.

---

Zoey leans against a sturdy-looking bookshelf, one foot braced against it for balance, arms behind her as she listens. She's careful not to disturb the books with her doubtlessly dirty bootheels.

"My imagination clearly isn't what it once was," Zoey remarks. "How much worse than a nuclear meltdown can one get?" In asking this she makes the aggressive assumption that by 'meltdown' the professor means something worse than just having to lock a reactor up in a coffin for a few hundred years. Modern reactors were pretty robust things that couldn't just explode like Chernobyl did, but she wasn't sure how resilient they were to deliberate sabotage (which, admittedly, was pretty close to what happened at Chernobyl).

"Maybe we should just try not to find out," Frank said, intervening between Professor Xavier and the occasionally acid-tongued Zoey. Beyond a certain level of Really Bad, the details mostly ceased to matter. Meltdown or Kaboom... it hardly mattered which. Both were to be avoided.

"Three questions, sir. One, who or what are we facing? Two, how are we getting there, if the Blackbird is away? Three, why was Kate Messer omitted from the team?"

A mission! They were getting a mission!

Zoey's eyes flick to Tank. She is a little put out at getting shut down like that, but she can't really complain when the seconds are ticking away. His questions are certainly good ones.

Kate grinned and gave Zoey a wave.  "I would try to save you a Taco but I'm not that brave."  She called after the retreating form of fishgivinggirl.  So while the others were learning about meltdowns, and other bad things Kate was finishing her food and watching a passel of younger mutants enjoy lunch, and making a mess.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:08, Thu 04 Feb 2021.

The Professor was a patient man, but in this case, he had to hurry or the entire discussion will become a moot point.

"You will be facing the group of Mutant radicals, and any of their friends that they manage to spring out from the holding facility.  The US military isn't going to be happy to see you either, but I will see what I can do about that"

The Professor furrowed his eyebrows as he concentrated on the image coming miles away

"- we have no more time to waste.  Hank, you must leave now. I will brief you, and whomever chooses to accompany you, on the way over"

"Then I guess we'd better get moving," Tank said, squaring his shoulders. He was still concerned that he possibly wasn't ready... but if there was no choice, there was no choice. He stepped over the stand by Dr. McCoy. He looked to Zoey and Ana Sofia, hoping like hell they chose to come with them, because he wasn't sure he could do it without them. He'd been training with them most of all, and knew them better than he did any of the regular X-Men.

But this was their decision, and they weren't nearly as interested in being X-Men as Frank was.

Zoey sighs. She's not super pleased about it, but she knows that reality is breaking down one's front door they don't usually have the luxury of asking what's going on before the bullets start flying. "Tacos, you want to ask Kate to join us?" she asks of Ana. She otherwise follows whoever seems to most want her to follow them.

Ana Sofía listens quietly, looking more pensive than usual. Finally she replies, "I'm no hero, professor. But you haven't led me astray yet and I trust you. Plus, if things get even more out of hand, the young mutants will be in even more danger. So I guess I'm in."

In reply to Zoey she says, "Kate's young. Just like self-defense classes are fine, teaching her to defend herself is fine. But there is a reason the military won't let her sign up yet. Even though we could surely use the help, we shouldn't ask her." Something seems to occur to her. "That wasn't a suggestion to answer Frank, was it? I don't think I could handle 'Tacos.'"

"Yes, that is correct.  Both Kate and Barnell are still too young.  I can't allow them to join and risk their lives"
That was blatant ageism for you, but he had to draw the line somewhere.
"Hank" he pressed McCoy yet again  " - The elevator"

“Yes, Professor, we are leaving”

‘Beast’ pressed a blue furred hand against the touch panel to summon the hated narrow elevator up to the top floor (he arguably disliked squeezing into it even more so than Zoey).  While they waited, he addressed one of Frank’s earlier questions:

“We have three, two-seater jets down at the hangers.  They have the same VTOL capability of the blackbird, but with much more limited range and speed.  For our purposes, however, they will suffice”

As the elevator door opened, he motioned with his hand at Zoey, and Ana, bowing ever so lightly:

“After you”

Getting into the elevator Ana Sofía replies, "You said two-seater jets?" She looks at the others. "You're not expect me to try to not crash one, right?"

Zoey frowns a bit as Ana rejects the nickname. "Sorry Ana. Still haven't found a nickname for you that sticks. And... fine. At least tell Tabby what's happening; I told her I would keep her up to date."

---

Talk of the jets makes Zoey feel a bit nervous. Although she's played a fair bit of Microsoft Flight Simulator and Kerbal Space Program, she's not formally trained to fly. And VTOL... aside from one hilariously disastrous spacecraft she'd designed in KSP, that'd be a new experience for her. "I'm... sure they have remote control," is her uncertain guess.

I can survive a crash, Frank tried to reassure himself, thinking of the two-seater jet being flown by a novice. But he was the only one who could, so that was really no comfort at all. He followed Dr. McCoy into the elevator along with the girls, squeezing in as best as they could.

They could build the Danger Room large enough to swallow the Houston Astrodome, but they couldn't build a reasonable-sized elevator? Absurd. This thought overwhelmed thoughts of a fiery crash, but only for a few moments. Then Frank was back to worrying over who was going to fly the second jet.

"Remote control would save a lot of grief," he agreed with Zoey.

"Thanks, Frank." Ana Sofía very gentle ribs him. "I'll feel so much safer knowing you won't share my terrified, fiery death." The she seems to distract herself.

A moment later she's thinking more out loud. "What's bugging me is the answer or lack thereof to your earlier question. The nuclear facility doesn't seem to be the greatest diversion for a prison break far from it. Sure, it got some X-Men out of the way, but they wouldn't know how many to expect to divert. I get the feeling the prison break is also a diversion, that they're both diversions for something else. While one diversion might not draw everyone out, two should. But what would be the big target? I don't think it would be the school here, as Professor Xavier could probably handle anything coming this way. But with the jets and X-Men all gone, would couldn't respond to something somewhere else. If I were doing that, I'd do something far from either diversion to help guarantee a delayed response. I dunno, but it's bugging me already."

Zoey shrugs. Then she thinks about a bit longer. She frowns, shrugs again. "I don't know... compared to a nuclear reactor blowing up, a prison break seems relatively insignificant. Professor Xavier didn't seem to think so, which tells me he knows something about that particular prison. I can't recall anything special about it, so it probably isn't public knowledge. The number of jets that the X-Men have also probably isn't public knowledge. It's not completely outside the realm of possibility that this is some kind of multi-layered gambit, but that seems to be giving too much credit to terrorists. In any event, thinking too much about it doesn't do us a whole lot of good. What are we gonna do; just not respond to the prison break that has the Professor's underpants twisted up? Is that an option we're considering?"

Zoey shrugs once more. "We'll keep the engines warmed up and ready to go. I know they're short range but if need be the Professor can tow the fuckers back to the Institute."

"Some powered mutants are like walking WMDs," Frank opined. He couldn't believe he even needed to have this conversation, but maybe it was better to have it than to leave certain things unsaid. Some mutants were simply bad news. "There are some really nasty guys out there with the power to wreck cities. They're worse than a nuclear meltdown because they can decide when and where to do it, and then they can do it again.

"Unless they're stopped, which is where we come in... somehow."

The 'jets' Beast was referring to turned out to be so small that they almost looked like a toy model airplanes.  If these things were actually to take off, and deliver them to their destination, it would be miraculous indeed.  There were so small, and light, in fact, that Zoey imagined she herself could flip them over sideways, if she wanted to.

"Here we are.  The auto-pilot is smart enough to take off, fly, and land at our destination.  As long as nothing unexpected happens along the way, there would be no need for you to take the controls"

'Unexpected' was very reassuring, considering the circumstances

"There are spare uniforms at the lockers down there" he pointed at the door on the far side of the miniaturized hangers  "You can change while I get everything up and running"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:19, Sat 06 Feb 2021.

"No, Zoey, I'm not saying we shouldn't respond. Just like in chess, you still need to respond to a gambit, but that doesn't mean you don't recognize it. I'm just trying to be aware. And if it is a prison keeping mutants, it must be special in some way."

Ana Sofía doesn't seem particularly excited looking at the little planes. Beast's next comment surprises her out of that thought, though. "You have suits in our sizes? They better not be so ugly they ruin my modeling career... So, if we're going on a mission assigned by the professor in X-Men vehicles and wearing X-Men suits, does this mean we're X-Men now?"

With a shrug, Frank went towards the locker room marked with the large M (for Men, not Mutants). In there he found the spare uniforms, with dark blue bodysuits, plus yellow trunks and tunics, and blue masks. He found the largest of these and began to get changed.

He emerged a few minutes later, using his left arm to pull his right across his chest and flex his shoulder. The suit was tight enough that it felt uncomfortable without actually being restricting. Frank just wasn't used to clothes that fit that snugly.

"Suit fits so tight, you can tell I'm Jewish," he joked.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:07, Sat 06 Feb 2021.

Ana Sofía quickly heads to the women's lockers and gets dressed. She soon emerges showing off more of her figure than she usually does outside of swimming or a modeling gig. Coming just after Frank she hears his comment. "Is that TMI or are you giving a heads up, Frank? And if it's too tight, you could forgo the top." Once she's got his attention she does a little runway turn. "So, how's it look?"

Zoey follows Ana to the women's room. Her eyes widen as she realizes what Frank meant by uniforms. She flicks through the options, finding her size; being fairly average in physical respects meant it wasn't difficult. She holds the insubstantial thing up to the light, trying to draw an estimate on its thread count. Looks like spandex... she remembers the pain of having to cut melted polyester from her breasts after Manhattan and isn't particularly eager to repeat the experience.

No, it can't be that bad. The X-Men wore this shit in combat situations. It had to be made of some stupid sci-fi material, right?

Zoey takes out her Leatherman and flicks out the straightedge to try and cut the uniform in her hand.

In reply to Ana Sofia Garcia Mendez (msg # 48):

"You look great," Frank assured Ana Sofia after a cursory glance. He'd have looked longer, but he didn't want to stare. She looked as though she had been poured into the uniform, rather than put it on. It accentuated every curve in a way that reminded Frank just how snug his own uniform was. "Very nice."

"Good thing I was headed to the gym to do yoga after the tacos, so I was already wearing a sports bra. Otherwise this could have been disastrous. Zoey may be a moment; she's looking over the material. We all probably should have, but maybe I trust Professor Xavier a little much."

Beast was busy opening the cockpit of one of the jets and and starting with the pre flight checklist.  He answered Ana with his back still turned toward her, so pre-occupied with his work that the full significance of her question escaped him:

"You're one as far as I'm concerned"

In the meantime, Zoey found that her knife slid over the fabric, rather than cutting it.  It was somewhat resistant to damage then, but counting on it to stop bullets would probably not be so wise.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:08, Sun 07 Feb 2021.

Zoey returns, looking not altogether different than when she first entered the locker room. At first it seems as though she hadn't changed at all but for two differences; an X-logo pinned to the neck of her red hoodie, and the blue and yellow fabric visible around her neck and wrists.

"I hadn't considered myself to be even remotely overweight until I put that thing on," she explains, a little sullenly. She half-unzips the front of her hoodie to reveal both that she's wearing the uniform underneath and her concern over her appearance is undeserved. "I hope this is...satisfactory..." She blinks and swallows as Ana's confident strut nears her. Her own insecurities are buoyed a bit higher by jealousy.

To take her mind off Ana, Zoey turns to the planes and starts getting her engineering geek on. "They look a bit like the German Komet don't they?" she observes. "They're cute. Can you really fit a VToL system in an airframe this small? You'll have to tell me what other crazy sci-fi technology the X-Men have sometime. If we live through this anyways; on that topic, who's flying with who?"

"Well, I think you look great," Frank said to Zoey, strongly suspecting that she wouldn't allow his opinion to influence her own.

It was about then that his brain finally processed what Dr. McCoy had said about being X-Men. Holy crap, he was an X-Man. Tank was officially an X-Man. Frank couldn't help but smile.

"Now we just need to come up with a better codename for Ana than 'Tacos'."

"Zoey, you look good."

After Zoey's plane comment Ana Sofía suggests, </Blue>"If weight limits matter, Frank and Prof. McCoy should fly separately."</Blue>

She replies to Frank's comment about 'Taco' with, "I was considering 'Windtalker' to honor my great-grandfather, and it seems to fit speaking to peoples' minds. It might sound like something akin to Storm, though."

"I like it." Frank nodded. It was a good name, given Ana Sofía's power combined with a Navajo heritage. "And I wouldn't worry about overlapping with Storm. I think they call her the 'windrider'. They don't really sound the same.

"Do you actually speak Navajo? I read an article a couple of years ago that said the language was almost dead for a lack of native speakers."

"Yes, I speak Diné, mostly with shimá sáni. It's her first and main language, and it's my second, after Spanish. English is actually my third, but that's what we focused on in school in Albuquerque and that's what so many others spoke. Well, that and Spanish. At home it's all Spanish or Diné."

"...and if you've heard me on the phone with José, that's mostly Diné with a little Spanglish showing up naturally. It's nice to be able to talk privately even right around people."

"Okay. We've got Windtalker, Tank, and..." Frank wasn't entirely sure he'd head Zoey correctly as he was leaving the kitchen earlier "...Red, was it?"

Zoey blushes at the compliments and mutters indistinct words of thanks as she mills about with her... team mates. What a weird idea that is, that she's actually part of a team now. A team with a weird name and weirder uniforms but a team nonetheless, which meant that someone out there saw that she had something useful to contribute and wanted her to be a part of them.

Superficial nitpicks aside, it felt good to feel needed.

"Huh?" Zoey replies when she realizes Tank is talking to him. Right, they needed to agree on code names. "Oh, uhm. Red was kind of... not-serious? But it works, I can imagine it sounding clear and distinct when shouting orders over a radio while everything is exploding all around us." She pauses to think. "I'm not sure that Windtalker has that same quality. Whisper, maybe?"

"It's easier to come up with names for others than myself. Call me whatever you think sounds good I guess," says the woman largely content with Fishgivinggirl.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:28, Sun 07 Feb 2021.

"How about Heartbreaker?" Frank suggested. "'Cause, y'know..." He clutched his chest and made an exagerated face like he was suddenly dying "...Gack!"

Zoey chuckles a bit. "If that's the route we're going, I'd go with Kira." She wonders, not for the first time, if all these wacky mutant powers and sci-fi technologies could be wrangled into making a functional Death Note.

"Seriously?" Frank was a little surprised. More than a little, really. He wasn't that into anime, but he knew stuff, and to his ear that name was a bit racist. "Isn't that just 'killer' pronounced in a stereotyped Japanese accent? L's become R's, final R gets dropped?

"I mean, if it doesn't offend you, then maybe I'm just overthinking things. But I can't say I'm too fond of calling a teammate 'Killer'.

He sighed, and his voice dropped to almost a whisper.

"So far, I'm the killer on this team."

"That it certainly is, but given that the show was made by the Japanese..." She hums thoughtfully. "Still, can't argue that it's not the best look. Guess it's back to Heartbreak then."

Zoey gives Frank a blank stare in response to his breathy mumbling, several seconds of blank stare even, before speaking. "I've often wished there had been someone to stop me when my mutation first went rampant, but there hadn't been and because of that seven people died. That woman was a police officer, a public servant... if she could speak to us, I doubt she would hate you for what you did. If anything... she would hate me. I was in a position to stop her, but because I was more concerned about Kate liking me I didn't act when I should have. So I won't let you feel guilty over that."

Immediately after Frank's whisper Ana Sofía puts a gentle hand on his upper arm. She doesn't say anything, just warmly letting him know she's here for him.

In reply to Zoey Fujino (msg # 53):

"If I told you were the technology to build these jets came from" Beast bended over to make sure the tires of the jets were properly inflated.  "- you'd never believe me"

He stayed silent when the others were busy talking about their call names, trying to focus on his work and get the jets ready to go.  But he just HAD to stand up and say something after Frank called himself a killer:

"I wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for you, young man" he reminded him "And countless others owe you their lives as well"

He let that sink in for a moment before he tapped the side of the miniaturized jet closest to him:

"Tank, you ride with me. Heartbreaker, Windtalker, climb on board the other one.  We must be on our way"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:26, Mon 08 Feb 2021.

"Thank you," Frank said. "Everyone. Really. But there have been nights when I've woken up with a dry 'Crack!' echoing in my ears. It's been pretty rough. Obviously I've still got to come to terms with things."

He moved towards the two-seater craft that Dr. McCoy had pointed out for them. One seat was obviously for the pilot; he climbed into the other one.

"Ready."

Unnoticed by most several closed doors behind more quiet footsteps trod through the underground facilities of the Mansion.

Zoey lowers her head a bit. She reckons there is a world of difference between thinking someone to death and feeling them die in your hands.

"Aliens, got it," Zoey replies flippantly to Professor McCoy's non-explanation of the technology's origins.

Looks like it's time to go. Zoey climbs into the pilot's seat of the second microjet, figuring that if something goes wrong with the autopilot she'd probably be better at the controls than Ana. Hopefully these things don't share the Komet's propensity for exploding on takeoff. That'd be a really stupid way to die. At least it'd be quick, though; much better than drowning in concrete... lungs burning, unable to move... wow, these cockpits really are tiny aren't they...

Stop it, brain, Zoey chastises herself. It's not a coffin, it's a plane. People use them allllll the time. Just breathe. There you go...

Ana Sofía walks over to the little jet she'll share with Zoey. "Well, at least ours will be more spacious with it being the two of us." She stops for a moment, seemingly lost in thought.  As Zoey climbs into the pilots seat Ana Sofía follows toward the other seat and says, "Good. I don't think I would have a chance at the controls on this thing..." She continues quieter and more than a bit exasperated, "Wait, what? ¿Es en serio? ¡No mames!" Her climb into the other seat has stalled. She's got one foot in and hands ready to lower herself when she swings the other foot in, but it's just not happening. He breathing has sped up as well.

Zoey is just starting to get comfortable when she spies 'Windtalker' struggling with getting her other leg into the plane. She offers up a sympathetic (and slightly amused) smile when their eyes meet. She knows a phobic reaction when she sees one. She can't be certain whether it's one of claustrophobia's many siblings or a more general fear of flying, but she can't imagine there's many pleasant memories going through Ana's head right now either. She can hardly blame her; Ana's last trip airborne had come to a rather abrupt stop.

"I promise it won't drop you," Zoey reassures her, only slightly teasing.

"Do you promise I won't die in a ball of flame when this thing tries to take off, too?"

Zoey makes a show of considering the question, a finger alighting on her chin in the stereotypical and slightly ditzy thinking pose. "Of course! It's made with crazy non-flammable alien space technology, and we have the Protagonist Power now! Right, Beast?" She forces a lot more confidence into her words than she is feeling.

"I'm not worried about the jet surviving a ball of flame. I'm not made out of crazy, non-flammable, alien, space technology." Seeing the others strapping in, she closes her eyes a moment and summons what courage she can. She slips in and starts belting herself in for the trip. "If I die in a ball of fire, my ghost is going to haunt McCoy with all my mental power."

Kate pondered the phrase, quiet as a mouse and how really they weren't all that quiet unless hiding, so maybe it should be quiet as a hiding mouse... but now she was getting sidetracked.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:03, Tue 09 Feb 2021.

After buckling in, Ana Sofía settles back and closes her eyes, focusing on other things.

In reply to Ana Sofia Garcia Mendez (msg # 76):

Kate twiddles her thumbs, quietly waiting.

Despite focusing, Ana Sofía is clearly agitated.

Kate frowned a little to herself before getting a thoughtful look and stilled her restless fingers.

In reply to Ana Sofia Garcia Mendez (msg # 74):

"What I meant to say was that it seems unlikely to go down and become a ball of flame because it is made of crazy alien space technology! Not that she necessarily trusts alien space technology that's been repurposed into tiny VTOL transport jets, but that's neither here nor there...

Hrm... is Ana picking up on her thoughts? She had always seemed to Zoey to be in more control of her mutation than Kate had. Kate's getting a lot better lately though... oh! Maybe Kate's a skill vampire!

Don't be ridiculous, Zoey. You'd know if Kate was messing around in your mind-

"Eek!"

Zoey puts a hand over her chest to steady herself.

"What's wrong, Zoey?" Ana Sofía tries to peak forward some after the little shriek (which didn't sound like a reaction to a ball of fire), but she's already belted in and cannot get very far.

A girl pokes her head out of the cockpit of the third jet, her twin blonde braids bouncing. She's dangerously cute and has a bright, cheerful grin. She waves with her left hand, which has a Nintendo Switch on a lanyard about her wrist.

"Hey, slowpokes! What are you waiting for? It'll be fine; if you fall, I'll catch you!"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:01, Wed 17 Feb 2021.

Beast was already squeezed into the cockpit of his own jet when the blonde girl materialized out of nowhere.  His mouth dropped, then his eyes narrowed in annoyance:

"Serena! What are you doing down here?!"

She wasn't the first student that managed to find her way into the secret basement levels.  Mundane security measures were awfully inadequate in keeping mutants away.  It was simply impossible, considering the range of super-powered abilities available.

And as Beast was trying to pull himself out of his jet, yet another figure entered the underground hanger:

"...WAIT!!!  Wait for me!" Barnell waved his arms above his head as he ran down the length of the hanger "Wait!!" he jumped forward and interposed himself between the jets, and the runway-tunnel leading out
This message was lightly edited by the player at 12:37, Thu 11 Feb 2021.

In reply to Barnell Bohusk (msg # 84):

Kate came running in with Barnell, though she wasn't quite as manic as he seemed to be.  "Ooh cool fighter jets!" Was her comment as she slowed to a trot, sharp eyes picking out details, like the fact Tank was painted into an x-man uniform, or that sourceofcookies totally rocked that look.

Given that she was still wearing one of the first skirts she had gotten after arriving here Kate wouldn't exactly fit in with the Aesthetic, but since fishgivinggirl also had on street cloths she decided not to worry about it.  "So who am I riding with?"  Max capacities certainly wouldn't be a problem, not if Beast and Tank could take one plane together.

Eyeing the options she headed towards the one with Zoey and Ana without waiting for an answer.  They were small but she would fit, and Barnell would need a seat, she doubted he could fly fast enough to keep up.

Frank pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. What the freaking hell was going on??

She replied to Big Blue, pointing at the game console strapped her wrist, "Playing Nintendo." Her wide smile connotes self-indulgent cheekiness.

She was not wearing a uniform. In fact, she was wearing a hot pink blouse, leather bandeau jacket, black-skirt-and-boy-shorts combo, and trendy but functional combat boots. The blouse featured an ukiyo-e-style rendition of a samurai, holding a sword with one hand and pointing to a dotted line over Serena's stomach with his other hand. Large Japanese letters communicated instructably.

"I heard we were dispensing justice, hot and fresh, and I'm not getting left outta that."
This message was last edited by the player at 07:01, Wed 17 Feb 2021.

Zoey gives Ana a little 'oh, I think you know' sort of look. She elaborates with only one spoken word. "Kate."

And speak of the devil! Zoey supposes the inability of herself or her passenger to give the 'too young to be an X-man' girl good directions to their destination meant she had to force her way onto a jet herself. Zoey hopes that Tabby is up to the challenges and trials ahead.

Speaking of challenges and trials... Serena. Oh, gods save them all. Zoey had made the mistake of expressing a passing interest in Japanese animation under her breath when the oversized schoolgirl had ambushed her in the hall one day, and now it seemed like she couldn't be left alone. Somehow it seemed that Zoey, loner and lover of quiet, was the only adult-aged attendant of the entire Institute who Serena could talk shop with about magical girls.

Zoey sinks deeper into the seat of her jet, trying her best to disappear. In her head, she tries to calculate how much of a well-defended military installation is likely to remain standing by the end of the day.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:33, Fri 12 Feb 2021.

With unflagging optimism, "Hi Zoey!" She waved excitedly.

At least she wasn't actually wearing her Super Sailor Moon outfit.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:00, Wed 17 Feb 2021.

Thinking ahead for once Kate didn't shift down before reaching her chosen lap.  After all she might want cloths after the fight, but instead she finished 'boarding' the plane first.  "Sorry, I'll fit in just a sec..." she apologized to Zoey as she squirmed into her lap.  The two girls fit, if barely the space that could contain one Frank before Kate shrank, rapidly shrinking down to a far more manageable travel size, already purring in self satisfied triumph at not having been left behind.  'Professor McCoy, we probably should hurry or things will be on fire.'

She wasn't sure if the thought would get through, even though she had far better control with line of sight if Professor Xavier or even probably Ana wanted they could probably muzzle her communication.

Addressing Barnell and Kate Ana Sofía says, "Guys, while I would be happy to have more assistance, have you considered Professor Xavier may have something he wants you to do that won't get covered now? If Professor McCoy had gone running off with some of the others, he wouldn't be here to work with us right now."

McCoy didn't have many options.  The students already defied Xavier's wishes, and he didn't think they'd be more inclined listen to him if he made the same request.  Snarling at them to leave wouldn't work either - they all knew McCoy was a big softy and would never hurt any of them (though he had to admit the thought of administrating a spanking was tempting...)

Only one option then - to go, and leave the rest of them behind

"Hold tight" he flipped the ignition and shouted to Frank over the noise of the roaring engines.

Barnell sidestepped at the very last moment to avoid being run over by McCoy's and Frank's jet.  He closed his eyes to avoid being blinded by the flare of the engine, and by the time he opened them the jet was long gone - having traveled the length of the tunnel leading outside within the span of a few seconds

Ana Sofía looks over in surprise as the jet heads out. She closes her eyes and concentrates.

"Are we really going alone?" Frank asked, craning his neck around over his shoulder to see if the other jet was behind them or not.

«Working on an answer now,» he told Ana Sofia, not sure what the range was on her telepathy. They were already miles from the mansion, and accelerating away quickly.

Aw shoot, she was already spotted. Meekly Zoey emerges up over the top of her cockpit and waves slightly to Serena. It wouldn't do to be impolite right now. She seriously doubts that the troublesome young woman knew how to fly a plane, so all Professor McCoy has to do is turn on the autopilot for only the people he wants to come along. And Tabby-Cat. Zoey wasn't sure how much use Kate would be in this scenario which is why Zoey hadn't insisted she accompany them (well, that and time pressure) but some part of Zoey was happy to have her along for moral support on the mission.

The mission that Zoey was definitely going to be a part of.

Right?

... Right?!

Zoey watched helplessly as Hank & Tank sped away like a rocket-bat out of schoolgirl hell.

It wasn't that Zoey wanted to be an X-Man. Not precisely. She had a lot of issues with how the group conducted themselves. The name was dumb. She didn't like that they were the only group around that could deal with mutant threats and they still needed to hide their identities. She did want to feel needed though, needed to be a part of something greater than herself. For a moment, it seemed she had been; she'd fuss and pout about the little things but be a reliable team member when it counted. And now she was being left behind because of something beyond her control.

Zoey could probably fly this thing well enough to put them down safely, but getting somewhere of consequence was a whole other fish full of kettles. She wasn't even entirely clear on their destination.

Left behind again... getting with Serena, cracking open some local root beers (the good stuff; made with real cane sugar) and binge watching some trash anime sounded surprisingly apposite right now, because apparently that's all she's good for to anyone.

"Fucking damn it," Zoey mutters. She leans back in the tiny seat so hard her back makes a little pomf as it contacts the cushions. "Now what?"

Kate was also rather surprised by that.  Surely they wouldn't just leave them behind.  Tank was strong but couldn't do everything himself.  Sitting up on the shifting lap of her seat she looked over the controls.  Last she knew neither of the others were pilots so that meant it had to be automated somehow.  Hopefully there would be a big autopilot button or something, otherwise they couldn't have gotten there anyway.  'Don't give up, there has to be a way to follow them we just need to find it!' She thinks to the other two in the plane with her, feelings of encouragement coming through strongly.

"Have you considered why they took off suddenly without their backup? Professor Xavier had intentions for you to be doing something else. McCoy knows this and decided it was more important for you to stay here than for them to have backup. And you still want to disagree with them without knowing what's going on?"

Come on, Ana" Barnell might have looked like a bird, but he didn't have the brain of one "Then why didn't the Professor tell us what's going on to begin with?  He meant to exclude us"

"Well, that's fun," Serena chimes. She kips out of the plane, acrobatically spinning and vaulting off of one hand.

Cheerfully and with no hint of malice whatsoever, "There are a few possibilities for why Blueberry decided to do that, and they're all stupid. If he wants to be a giant baby, let him. Who's up for Smash Brothers?"

She hums the theme song, twin blonde braids bouncing, as she makes for the elevator out of the "secret" hangar. She doesn't bother checking if anyone is following her.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:00, Wed 17 Feb 2021.

Seeing where Serena is going, Zoey hops out of the plane and makes for the hanger entrance as well, along a route scientifically calculated to cross the other girl's. As soon as she can, Zoey reaches out and up to grab Serena by the ear and pull her twintails down to her level.

"Oh no you don't," she says simply. "You and I are going to the office to see the principal. I mean, the professor. If you come along quietly I might even deign to kick your ass in a few rounds of Smash after."

Zoey has never played any game in the Super Smash Brothers series, but Serena doesn't know that and -- unless Zoey very much misses her guess -- wouldn't be able to turn down the challenge.

Ultimatum so delivered, Zoey drags her out of the hanger by the ear before letting go.

In reply to Zoey Fujino (msg # 101):

After the scramble not to be pinched or tossed from Zoey's lap and subsequently the seat of the plane while the other woman left Kate sat there, alone, for a moment before her mental yell echoed out to those sensitive enough to hear it.  'Professor!  You taught us to work as a team.  But now you're breaking it up!  Frank and Dr. McCoy are all alone, with no one to help them!  That can't be what you want.  It isn't what I want.  Tank(Frank) is my friend, and if he's going to fight he should have his friends with him, sourceofcookies(Ana), fishgivinggirl(Zoey), Barnell, and me.  You can't send him off to fight or die and leave us behind.  We can help, we've been learning how to help, but as a team.  Please let us go back them up, let us make sure they are okay!' 

While there was a little bit of the teenaged manipulator in her thoughts, the vast majority of her statement was from the heart and though the names used were different who she meant by each was absolutely clear.  She was determined to help Frank, and scared for him if he had to go alone, both things that came through her own more empathicly based telepathy clearly.

"No wait!" Barnell held up his hand in an effort to stop the two girls before they left the hangar "I can fly these jets myself.  Really!"
And to prove he was serious, he leaned next to the cockpit of the third jet and punched a few buttons on the control panel.   In response, the engines of the jet flared up, though it still did not move down the runway just yet

"See?"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:13, Sun 14 Feb 2021.

Back in his office, a few floor above them, the Professor touched two of his fingers against the temple of his head

"Kate, Barnell; I am sorry, but both of you are still too young.  I can not send adolescents into a war-zone" though he addressed Kate and Barnell in particular, all present could hear the Professor's deep voice playing in their minds.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:19, Sun 14 Feb 2021.

Zoey glances back, sensing Barnell's attempts to get her attention. Huh, so the bird-boy can actually fly a plane even though he's not so hot at flying himself. That's interesting. Not immensely interesting because most human pilots can't fly well on their own either... but interesting nonetheless.

"That's nice," Zoey says, having to raise her voice to be heard over the gines, "but doesn't change the fact that the Professor doesn't want you to go. Either of them! Do you even know where we're going?"

Zoey is aware of the hypocrisy; she'd encouraged the two to steal their way to the facility knowing full well they hadn't been invited. But only Kate knows that.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:21, Sun 14 Feb 2021.

Still sitting in the second plane with Ana Kate doesn't seem to be ready to give up on the argument quite yet, though Barnell's comment does seem to bring her some hope.  'You aren't sending us, we're going ourselves.'  She was going to plead more but maybe they don't actually need the professors help.  'Come back, lets get going, quick before Tank and Hank have to face things alone.'

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Serena complains, having been grabbing the braid and then the ear. "Not fair! You know my one weakness is friendship!" She waggles her arms in a comic display of desperation to escape.

She either ignores the telepathy or can't perceive it.

"Psssh, come on!" she adds, "They want us to prepare for no reason, okay, whatever. Maybe they're right, but who cares? If they're wrong, then they'll face the consequences." She does her best to shrug while still leaning over to accommodate Zoey pulling on her braid.

"So are we going or what?" she asks her chaperone. "I'm bored."
This message was last edited by the player at 07:00, Wed 17 Feb 2021.

Ana Sofía just leans back in her seat in frustration as the others go about their various alternatives.

"We'll follow Professor McCoy's Jet

Barnell finished prepping the third jet and made his way to the second - the one with Ana inside, cat in her lap

"See;  It's quite simple" his fingers flew across the console "They never changed the password since their mission to Benin.  And since all their exploits are recorded and can be replayed in the Danger-Room..."  he trailed off as the engines of the jet came to life.   The fact that Barnell swiped the launch-codes by watching X-Men reruns on the Danger Room also meant he probably learned how to fly the jets in the same manner.  Which wasn't very reassuring.

"OK. That should do it..." he looked up one last time at Serena and Zoey before he would climb into the pilot's seat "Tell the Professor I'm sorry, but I'm not going to let my friends risk their lives while I sit here and wait"

Zoey looks back and forth between Barnell and Serena.

"Wait; you broke the computer codes by watching re-runs?" She asks, shocked past the ability to inflect. "That-... that's the stupidest and most hilarious thing I have ever fucking heard, and I watch news on Youtube. Alright, fine! I'm gonna kick all ya'll's asses when we get back, but that's then."

She drags Serena (still by the ear) to the other jet, where the other was originally seated and kicked off this whole mess. "I'm flying with Nuke It From Orbit here to make sure she doesn't kill anyone who doesn't deserve it." Ana, Barnell, and Tabby can stay in the jet they're already in, she reckons. "Let's do this shit before I change my mind."

"Wooo! Keikaku dorii!" Serena announces, merrily plopping to the seat Zoey pulls her towards.

She gives Barnell a double thumbs-up. "Great job!" She buckles back in and bounces excitedly in her seat. Fortunately for the attention span of any nearby female-inclined individuals, Serena's generous assets are safely contained in a sports bra.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:59, Wed 17 Feb 2021.

Kate had certainly not been expecting that revelation, or for Barnell to come clambering in towards where she had been sitting in Zoey's vacated seat, her clothing cluttering up the footwell.  Luckily she was by definition best cat at the mansion and so slipped back and around to Ana's lap before he was even up the boarding ladder.

She meant to do that, had always intended to do that, and Ana had the better lap.  With that knowledge radiated to the universe, perhaps a bit more literally than most cats, she waited for him to get this show on the road.  She even held back from taunting the professor.  It wouldn't be nice and she did want to come back.

Visibly flummoxed Ana Sofía says, "Guys, there is a reason the military won't let you enlist. Them not asking you isn't sufficient for them to let you choose to go to war."

Ana’s arguments fell on deaf hears.  Even as she spoke, Barnell closed the cockpit over their heads, and before she could finish the sentence her jet started moving down the tunnel

”If the Professor really wanted us to stay, he would have stopped us by now.  Put us all to sleep or something” Barnell was sure he was right.  They couldn’t possibly have stolen the two jets without Xavier’s tacit approval,  which meant there was no need to worry about whether they were doing the right thing or not.

”Here we go!” he flipped the ignition key, and the three (and Zoey and Serena behind them) were immediately pressed against their seats under the forces of acceleration as the small jet made it to a hundred miles per hour in the span of a couple of seconds.   Barnell hardly had the time to mumble ‘o-shit’ when they approached the end of the tunnel and the blast doors in front of them failed to open.   He prayed to god that heaven didn’t exist, because it would be very embarrassing to meet the rest of the girls up there after he killed them all by driving both jets into a steel wall.

”I’m sorrrrryy!!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, and covered his eyes
This message was last edited by the player at 21:24, Wed 17 Feb 2021.

The jets didn’t crash into the wall – at the very last moment the doors slid open and allowed both jets to pass through, though Barnell didn’t stop screaming until they flew over the length of Breakstone lake and ascended high above the clouds.

Kate heard but didn't really listen to Ana's explanation of the objection to her participation in this obviously precocious expedition.  Instead she sat tall in the telepath's lap veritably preening.  At least she did until they accelerated.  Then she became a soft warm ball of fur pressed firmly into her stomach by G-forces letting out a slight yowl in surprise.  She was probably lucky in that unlike the others she didn't have her life flash before her eyes being unable to see where they were going until they were out in the open air and the acceleration had died down.  As things stabilized she put her paws up on the edge of the canopy to get a better look outside to watch where they were going.

Professor McCoy had no choice but to accept the fact that the underage mutants joined him on the life-threatening mission.  He berated them over the comms nonetheless, spoiling what should have been an otherwise pleasant flight over the picturesque landscape of new England.  A short flight – because in less than fifteen minutes they were nearly at their destination; Nomans land.

The small island off the shores of Massachusetts was once used as a practice bombing range by the US navy  - from the end of world war II, and all the way up to the nineties.  Closed to public use (the official reason being safety hazards from unexploded ordnance), the island was secretly turned into a holding facility for dangerous mutants, and now – into a smoking ruin.
Plums of smoke rose from the island, marring the clear blue skies.  The beachfront, where the small crafts have landed, looked like the aftermath of the landing at Normandy.  Hundreds of bodies were lying dead amidst the smoldering wrecks of tanks, personal carriers, and the bunkers up on the cliff.  The sand, and the waves rolling against it, both ran red with blood.   It was a battleground, but other than the squawking of the seagulls pecking at the entrails of the carcasses, the beach was eerily quiet.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:49, Fri 19 Feb 2021.

McCoy was a long time member in the X-Men, but he has never seen a carnage of this magnitude.  He waved for the others to stay back; not because it looked dangerous, but because he wanted to spare the younger students the gruesome sight.

"Holy crap," Frank said, barely more than a whisper. "What the hell happened here?"

To him, it looked as though a party had landed in the small boats and proceeded to slaughter the security force intended to keep them from doing just that. But there were finer details to the event that he wasn't able to ascertain on his own, such as who and how many had landed here. Doctor McCoy might be able to pick out those details from what lay before them, but Frank was at a loss.

This was going to be so much worse than Manhattan, he realized.

Kate had enjoyed the flight, up until the end at least, then she squinted at what she saw outside the cockpit.  This was a horror show.  She was used to seeing blood, and guts, hunting in the woods innured one to that, but not used to seeing that for people, or on anything like this scale.  Still at least she had some idea of what it would smell like when the canopy went up.  Probably a much better idea than the others would.

She balanced on the edge of jumping out, eyeing Ana and Barnell with a bit of concern before jumping to an untainted bit of beach.  It was better, being small, being low, not being able to see quite so far, or quite so much all at once.  She looked over at Beast doing her best to ignore most of what was around them.  'What are we doing here?  Who are we trying to stop?'

Zoey's response to their sudden acceleration was the predictable disgruntled string of profanities, no worse than many of them have likely heard out of the Heartbreak before. Fuck, shit, ass, fart, all the crotch-level favorites. If she has any obscenities to yell at Barnell in particular she keeps them for herself, instead flying along in mostly-silence.

At least, until she couldn't take Hank's chastisements anymore. "Professor McCoy," she says with the weariness one would expect from a veteran on the job. "Beast. Hank. Dear. Honey. You know I like you most of the X-Men. But please. Shut the fuck up." She could try to explain that Tabby had already been forced to grow up early in her time outside the Institute's gilded walls, Barnell may be a chicken but he has more courage than anyone Zoey had ever met, and his breath was completely wasted on Serena. She could have explained these things, but she chose not to. Why should she? It's done now. "Just five minutes of silence to find my center before we're boots-down. Please."

---

Zoey drifts through the beachfront carnage like a silent ghost, examining the situation with a detached calm. Well, a ghost who stumbled occasionally on the unstable sandy ground in any event. The death didn't bother her. She had made her peace with death a long time ago. What did bother her was the smell. Blood and sun-baked carcass, mixed with the salty seaweed smell of the sea. That last alone was enough to make her a little ill at the best of times. She put a hand over her chest and thanked the stars for having had a mostly-liquid breakfast.

She smacks Beast's hand away with annoyance as she advances past him. She takes a long panning scan of the environment.

"This is some armor," she observes. Focusing on the facts helped keep her mind off the smell. "They saw the bad guys coming but it doesn't seem to helped them very much. Take your pick; weapons or powers?" She approaches one of the metal husks to determine the damage.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:29, Sat 20 Feb 2021.

McCoy kneeled next to one of the bodies to get a closer look.  The man (ex-man), wasn't a solider.  He wasn't wearing a uniform, wasn't armed.  Just a very dead guy in street clothes.

Then he took a look at the next body.  And the next.  They were all the same.  Each and every one of the bodies had the exact same face (those whose faces were still recognizable) staring back at him with dead eyes.

"Peculiar" he muttered "Windtalker; are you able to sense anyone else on the island?"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:52, Sat 20 Feb 2021.

"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" exclaimed the blonde as the jet took off and flew like a rocket. It took her about twelve seconds to settle down when it became apparent that supersonic flight wasn't all that interesting once past the sound barrier.

She turned off her non-priority receiver after Blueberry's third sentence and started braiding Zoey's hair. She otherwise remained silent for the duration of the flight, well aware of how Grumpy Pants liked her quiet time. Serena gave Zoey two pretty braids, oh yes.

---

Once on the beach, Serena did an admirable job completely ignoring the horrific smell of death. Instead, she produced a gas mask from under the seat in her plane and ignored the bodies.

"Bunch of copies! They don't count! Onward, brave comrades!" she declared, pointing dramatically in the direction of the holding facility and striding boldly forth.

Ana Sofía gets out of the jet, still in a bit of a huff. Seeing all the bodies shocks her out of that. She just looks around in painful astonishment. Beast's question helps her focus. "Let me take a look."

After concentrating for a moment Ana Sofía says, "This is odd. It seems like most the soldiers are alive. Does that mean this is some sort of illusion? The soldiers are on the eastern side of the island. There are a bunch of people underground, presumably the mutant prisoners. But there are also two people watching us. I'll see if I can get a better idea about them, watching them watching us."

Ana Sofía concentrates again.

"Copies?" Zoey asks of Serena, or at least the space Serena occupied two seconds ago. She frowns and turns to find her, only to see she's charging full speed into the distance. Zoey debates the merits of letting Serena keep running ahead and possibly enlightening them to the presence of land mines on the island, but then decides that she doesn't want to waste a perfectly good meat shield on that. "Oi! Watch your step! Maybe landmines!"

Warning so delivered, Zoey turns back to the plainclothes... dudes. She supposes they do look the same, but most people look the same to Zoey. Duplication powers? Clones? Literal one-man army?

Bring it on. But what does it mean? Zoey looks to Ana for answers, although trying not to be so obvious about it. They're being watched, after all... Zoey double-checks that her X-Men badge is still pinned somewhere prominent in case their observers are friendly snipers.

"Hey!" Frank ran to catch up to the crazy blonde. He recognized her from around the mansion, but really wouldn't know her from a hole in the wall. What was her name? What were her powers? He had nothing. "We go when Beast says we go, and then we let the big bulletproof guy go first."

Depp down, Frank recognized her enthusiasm as mirroring his own, though. Part of him wanted to go charging to the rescue, too. He was just being more cautious in spite of that impulse, and she was giving in to it. He got the feeling she gave in to a lot of impulses.

"Just... can we be careful here, maybe?"

Serena looked back at Zoey and replied, "This is a government facility. Landmines are way too cheap, effective, and smart for them to have put anywhere. Nobody's campaign is funded by Big Landmine."

Her pretty blue eyes stared at Frank, and her dimples were visible around the sides of her plane-sourced respirator. Cheekily, "Careful is what we do when we're not trying to stop supercriminals from breaking other supercriminals out of superjail!"

Then she whipped back around and continued towards the prison. Or holding facility. Whatever lie the government made up to prevent people from finding out that the Earth is flat.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:04, Sun 21 Feb 2021.

"She makes some good points," Zoey begrudgingly admits. "It's good we don't go in completely blind but I don't see us learning anything of value sticking around here. Except maybe what ramen looks like after a half hour's digestion."

Kate was quiet, cats usually are, especially so when moving along careful to avoid stepping into something she would really rather not contemplate.  'Should I scout ahead? Nobody will look twice at a cat, or fox, and I can report back what I see.'

The offer was sent primarily to Beast, but she included the others so they would know what was what if she set off suddenly.

"Hey!" And the crazy blonde was off and running again. Frank sighed and ran to catch her again, but he wasn't sure he could. Tank wasn't the world's fastest runner. "Just hold up there, Sailor Moon!"

What part of 'Stay behind the bulletproof guy' was so objectionable? Did the girl have a death wish? Or was she just out of her mind? She'd done no team training, with Frank and the others, or with anyone else apparently. Was she incapable of following orders?

"When I say to stay behind me, it's not a suggestion!"

Orders? Was Frank giving orders? Apparently he was.

Serena almost made it to the edge of the beach, when the ground next to her was hit by a concussion blast so powerful it splashed sand (together with discarded bullet casings) some twenty feet away.

“That’s far enough, blondie”

A giant of a man rose and stood up behind a tank wreckage.  He was easily nine feet tall, with sickly, cracked white skin.  And those were not even his most distinguishing features – that honor went to his right arm.  Or rather, what should have been an arm, because instead of one he had a massive tank-scaled cannon attached to his shoulder.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:32, Sun 21 Feb 2021.

“We’re giving you a chance to go back home, X-Men.  Take it – before someone gets hurt”

The unassuming man was completely obscured by the giant until he stepped forward to deliver his ultimatum.  The determined way he looked at Frank, however, suggested he was no push over.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:40, Sun 21 Feb 2021.

"Funny... we were about to make you the same offer," Tank called back. He wasn't sure what the little guy was packing, but the big one might as well have written 'Fist Goes Here' on his face. "So I suppose there's probably no point....? No? Okay."

He pointed to Windtalker and Breathtaker, then at the little guy (who might not even be so little, except he was standing next to a giant). Take him was the obvious command.

To the annoying blonde, he said, "You're with me." They'd take the big guy.

Kate, scout for others, he called in his mind. Hopefully she was listening. And pick a codename!

Having given the orders that nobody was under any direct obligation to follow (although hopefully they would), Tank charged the big guy. His heart wasn't really in it, but it needed to be done.

Prowess d8
Gentle Giant d4 (+1PP)
Superhuman Strength d10
Combat Expert d8

Frank Guberman rolled 1,1,7,2 using d8,d4,d10,d8 ((1,1,7,2)).
Total: 9
Effect: d4 (default)

2 Opportunities
+2 PP (total 3)

D'oh!
This message was last edited by the player at 14:14, Mon 22 Feb 2021.

Ana Sofía was already switching to roughly just that, so she just nods to Frank. She pushes a thought into these two Brotherhood guys that the other Brotherhood guy is the real threat, about to betray him, and so the one who must be fought.

Hitting the giant could have been compared to hitting a wall, if Frank wasn't strong enough to punch through one.  The giant was, evidently, as strong as he was big; it would take more than a half-hearted attack to bring him down.  Having shaken off Ana's mental probe into his mind as well, the giant's arm morphed - from a single elongated cannon, into a Gatling style rotary one - the type that can shoot six thousand rounds per minute, and bring down an entire battalions (or X-Men teams) with one full sweep:

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Mutant bounty hunter 1d8
Prowess 1d10
Combat expert 1d8
Ranged attack 1d10
Area attack SFX: 5d6

5,4,4,5,8 using 1d10,1d8,1d8,1d10,5d6 with rolls of 5,4,4,5,1,1,3,1,2.  Random Gatling attack.  Total = 10.  effect: 1d8 vs serena and Frank.  1d6 vs the rest

---

Wax blinked while his brother-at-arm sprayed the entire coast with protoplasmic bullets.  He wasn't quite sure what was going on.  Weren't they supposed to be rescuing mutants, rather than killing them?  He glanced between the giant, and the X-Men, gritting his teeth with frustration


*Wax gains 1d12 mental stress

Ana Sofía sees the giant's attack coming. After all, his arm looks like what mowed down all these clones. She dives for cover, though not nearly so well as her more athletic peers would have.

His fist had bounced off the giant like he'd swung a pillow at the guy. He needed to hit him harder, damn it.

Then the guy shot up the entire beach. If Tank had only taken him down when he had the chance, the others would have been safe from this sort of thing. But no, he pulled his damn punch and failed to even make the guy notice him. Growling at himself, Tank crossed his arms in front of his face and did his best to weather the spray of bullets.

Prowess d8
Brains Plus Brawn d8
Superhuman Durability d10
Combat Expert d8

Frank Guberman rolled 7,6,9,6 using d8,d8,d10,d8 ((7,6,9,6)).
Total: 16 (vs. 10)
Effect: d8

Now that's more like it!

Kate wasn't slowed down by the massive barage, perhaps because she was nimble, perhaps because she was quick, perhaps because she was small, or perhaps because he didn't think to try and hit the cat that wasn't exactly grouped up with the rest.

Kate didn't question it though, daring as quick as she could away from the fight in an arc, first to cover, and then past the two blocking mutants, intent on doing what Frank had suggested to her in silence though as she had been listening for a response anyway it wasn't hard to do.  'I'm Kitfox'  She let him and the others know.  Personally she liked Tabby better, but that name was special, from fishgivinggirl, and so not something she wanted bad guys or strangers to ever get to use.


OOC:
Resist Bullet Rain
d10 In touch with her wild side
d8d8 Natures Response: Versatile Hybrid Versatility:
d6 Combat
d4 Distinction
23:22, Today: Kate Messer rolled 8,1,3,3,2 using d10,d8,d8,d6,d4 with rolls of 8,1,3,3,2.  resist bullet effect.
Total 13 effect d8 Opportunity d8
+1 Distinction, +1 Opportunity PP = 3

Action Sneak Sneak
d8 Ride the Tiger
d8d8 Natures Response: Versatile Hybrid Versatility:
d8 distinction
(assuming acrobatics and combat don't help with sneaking so no d6)
23:32, Today: Kate Messer rolled 8,7,4,1 using d8,d8,d8,d8 with rolls of 8,7,4,1.
Total 15 effect d8 opportunity d8
+1 Distinction PP = 4
This message was last edited by the player at 16:12, Mon 22 Feb 2021.

"That's Princess Serenity to you, buster!" Serena corrected Frank, not missing a beat when he called her Sailor Moon.

"Eep!" she exclaimed, when stuff exploded. To her credit, though, she didn't jump or run. She protected her face with her hands for a moment before letting them drop and blowing a raspberry at the offender.

"Missed me, Discount Mega-Man!"

Then Frank decided to punch Discount Mega-Man.

"You bet I am! Let's give them some jus-!" Her declaration was interrupted by minigun.

She threw her hands out and a pink, scintillating barrier of light, made of concentric circles with some rotating squares inside, appeared out of nowhere. Presumably she shouted something, since her mouth moved, but miniguns are extremely loud, so hearing what she said was nearly impossible.

Dodging may have been smarter. But why dodge when you have superpowers? That was apparently her attitude.

Serena uses Protection! Which is a spell she saw on Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Don't judge! Unless it's a positive judgment. Then judge away. =3

Prowess d10
Sunshine and Optimism d4
Sufficiently Advanced Mutations d8
Combat d6

04:31, Today: Serena rolled 3,1,3,5 using 1d10,1d4,1d8,1d6 with rolls of 3,1,3,5.  assault weapons ban.

Get 1 PP for using a d4 Distinction. Keep the 3 and 5, spend 1 PP to keep the other 3, total is 11. One opportunity gives me another PP, so my PP total is 2.

The bullets dissipated harmlessly against the "magic" shield and Serena stuck her tongue out. She didn't move from where she was standing, which remained a not-so-smart play, but it sure looked more impressive when she planted her feet, struck a pose, and declared:

"Divine shooter!" She pointed dramatically at Discount Mega-Man and a half-dozen bright pink lasers wa-pished at him, originating in the air just around Serena's hand.

Serena uses lasers! Bweeeeeeeem.

Prowess d10
Person of Mass Destruction d4
Sufficiently Advanced Mutations d10
Combat d6

05:03, Today: Serena rolled 5,4,7,2 using 1d10,1d4,1d10,1d6 with rolls of 5,4,7,2.  laser bang bang.

Total is 12, effect is d6.

Add 1 PP for a new total of 3.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:05, Mon 22 Feb 2021.

Zoey isn't entirely sure when the situation devolved so severely, and was only spurred to action when weird glowy energy bullets started flying her way. She ducks into a combat roll to try and avoid some damage but ends up taking a graze across the stomach anyways. Owwww!

08:14, Today: Zoey Fujino rolled 1d8+1d8+1d8 with rolls of 7,1,2.  Matrix Dodge! 1d8 Prowess, 1d8 Mimic, 1d6 Combat.

Result of 9. Ow! Zoey takes 1d6 physical stress.

Annoyed and slightly worse for wear, Zoey trudges up to the weird-faced man's side. Unlike his cannon-handed partner, he seems to be having some reservations about all this. "Having some second thoughts?" she says to him. "Mutants shouldn't be fighting one another. The ones below our feet now, they didn't understand that. They're not worth you getting hurt here."

08:32, Today: Zoey Fujino rolled 1d6+1d8+1d8+1d12 with rolls of 3,2,5,12.  Be Reasonable! 1d6 Willpower, 1d8 Head Full of Neuroses, 1d8 Psyche, 1d12 Wax's Mental Stress.

Going to take a result of 17, with a d8 for effect. Gonna try to talk the dude down.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:00, Mon 22 Feb 2021.

Both Barnell and McCoy easily dodged the hail of bullets; Barnell by taking to the skies, and McCoy by leaping behind one of the tanks, using it for cover.  From his safe vantage point, he looked at Serena's counterattack scorching the giant, her beam of concentrated energy piercing his shoulder blade.  The man could be hurt, after all.

As the giant howled in pain, McCoy seized the opportunity and charged forward before he could bring his gun back to bear - he wasn't going to stand and hide while his students were under fire!

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Beast rolled 3,3,6,8 using 1d8,1d8,1d8,1d8 with rolls of 3,3,6,8
Renaissance Beast 1d8
Superhuman strength 1d10 (stepped down due to claws)
Combat Expert 1d8
Prowess 1d8
Beast rolled 3,3,6,8 using 1d8,1d8,1d8,1d8 with rolls of 3,3,6,8
Total - 14, effect = 1d10 (1d8 stepped up to 1d10)

---

It wasn't supposed to happen like this.  They were here to rescue mutants, not kill their own brothers and sisters, no matter how misguided they were.  Random's lust for blood has gone too far; he had to be stopped, before he will seriously hurt someone

"No!!! Stop it!"

Knowing words weren't going to change the murderous giant mind, he jumped on the man's gunned arm, using his weight to pull it down and point the barrels away from the X-Men

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Defending vs Zoey's attack:
Wax rolled 1,3,8 using 1d8,1d8,1d8 with rolls of 1,3,8.
Total = 11, effect = 1d6.  Wax gained 1d0 mental stress, stepping up his previous stress to above 1d12. 


Wax attack vs Random:
1d10 supernatural strength
1d8 prowess
1d8 combat expert
1d8 Mutant emancipator
1d8,1d10,1d8,1d8 with rolls of 8,1,5,3.
Total = 13, effect =1d8

---

"You weak minded fool - get off me!"

The giant used his hand - the one that still had fingers on it, to peel his companion off him. A mighty kick sent the blue Beast flying all the way back till his momentum was finally stopped by an armored vehicles, which now had a nice McCoy-shaped imprint on its side.

"Legion.  Get your ass over here!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he swiveled around to face Frank once more "- Get down here!"

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
lots of rolls go here.  Random resisted both Wax and Beast attack's, but gained 1d6 physical stress from Serena's magical beam.

---

"This is why I say stay behind the guy who's bulletproof!" Tank called back to the others, not turning to look. He was afraid they might all look like that(those) unfortunate guy(s) on the beach now.

This time he was putting all of his strength into a real punch. This time it was going to count.

Prowess d8
Brains Plus Brawn d8
Superhuman Strength 2d10
(SFX: Mighty Blow — Spend 1 PP or add d6 to the doom pool to double Superhuman Strength for one action.)
Combat Expert d8

Frank Guberman rolled 7,1,8,9,6 using d8,d8,d10,d10,d8 ((7,1,8,9,6)).
Total: 17
Effect: d8
Opportunities: 1 (+1PP)
PP +1/-1 = 3 Total

Ana Sofía seems content to stay behind the remnants of the vehicle she dove toward rather than try to cross open ground to get behind Tank. From there, when the huge man calls out, she starts searching for this "Legion" before he/she/it has a chance to do anything to the X-Men, reaching out with her mind.

Willpower d10
Telepathy d10
One Step Ahead of You d8
Psych d8

05:43, Today: Ana Sofia Garcia Mendez rolled 3,7,7,6 using d10,d10,d8,d8 with rolls of 3,7,7,6.  Searching for Legion.

That's 13 with a d10 effect die.

Still at 1 PP.

Trying to persuade someone to turn on their ally in the middle of a fight without the use of superpowers is usually a pretty harsh prospect. Doing it when they're already hesitating and under psychic influence? A little bit less far-fetched! Zoey can't help but grin the teeniest little bit at her own personal contribution to the chaos. She knew she shouldn't; it's never nice to see people fighting one another when they should be on the same side. But sometimes it's just too damn funny.

Zoey is brought out of her reverie at Firearm Arms Mutant's call for backup? "Legion?" she asks. "That must be clonedude. Ana, give me a target." She puts on a nonchalant demeanor despite her wound. Really, this hurt less than a lot of her bedroom play. Three powerhouses ought to be enough to take down the one dude no matter how hard a target he was, so Zoey figured her attention would best be focused on whatever kind of opponent Legion was supposed to be.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:46, Tue 23 Feb 2021.

I'll spend 1 PP so Serena can keep her magic shield power. So that leaves me with 2 PP.

Serena did her best to completely ignore Mr. Inconspicuous and her allies going after him. She's pretty good at it!

"Crossfire!" she declared, making a swirling motion with her extended index finger. Lasers should not have been able to stop and turn around in mid-air. In fact, lasers should not have been perceptible as moving at all. But these ones could do those things!

The lasers turned around in smooth arcs and flew right back towards Discount Mega-Man.

Prowess d10
Person of Mass Destruction d8
Sufficiently Advanced Mutations d10
Combat d6
Discount Mega-Man Stress d6

13:35, Today: Serena rolled 3,8,5,6,2 using 1d10,1d8,1d10,1d6,1d6 with rolls of 3,8,5,6,2.

Total 14
Effect d10

No opportunities.

The giant's body reflexively reacted to the assault. Before Frank could land his punch the mutant's flesh became elastic and rubbery, perfectly absorbing and redirecting the kinetic force back, to the effect that Frank's fist merely bounced harmlessly against it.  Serena's laser beams were likewise ineffective, despite being able to punch a hole through him on the very first attempt.  And if it wasn't bad enough that the giant was quickly adapting to their powers, the wounds he did suffer already healed completely, leaving no trace that he was ever hurt to begin with.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)


Random rolled 7,4,1,5 using 1d10,1d10,1d8,1d8.  Random's reaction to Serena's attack
Mutant bounty hunter 1d8
Combat expert 1d8
Supernatural durability 1d10
Prowess 1d10
Total:7+5+4 (spending 1 doom die to keep extra die).  Effect die 1d6 (default). Attack resisted

Random rolled 6,10,2,3 using 1d10,1d10,1d8,1d8 Random's reaction roll to Frank's attack
Total = 6+10+3 (spending 1 doom die to keep extra die). Attack resisted.

Random recovers all his stress (spend another doom die) as his action this turn.

---

Wax has fought alongside Random before and knew it was pointless duking it out with him.  Containing him was their only option.
"No - grab him.  Just grab him!"
He ducked benath the giant's arm and went directly for a tackle, smashing his shoulder against the giant's thigh and bringing him down to his knees

Randoms gains 1d8 complication (grappled)

McCoy was tossed aside like a rag doll by Random.  When he got back up to his feet he was no longer the wise and calm professor, but a three hundred-and-fifty pound raging Beast!

Like a blue furred Gorilla, he snarled as he ran on all fours toward the giant, jumped on his back, and wrapped his massive arms around his neck, squeezing the life out of him.

Random complication stepped up to 1d10 (grappled)

From afar, a small mutant continues her recon sending back her thoughts to the team.  'There are ten of the same person guarding a hole in a barrier wall.  They're armed, I'm going to scale the wall further down.'

Zoey points questioningly in a direction as Ana and Kate refine the location. Once the direction is locked in Zoey sends indiscriminate waves of crushing sleepiness towards... gods, she sure hopes they're the bad guys and not just guard clones made by the military somehow. She supposes that's why she's using a nonlethal option. In any event, it's the same basic and proven technique she used on Fiona so she knows it works. She pushes her ability to their limit to try and break through the distracting gash across her stomach; one would think not being able to see her targets would matter, but apparently not!

---

03:55, Today: Zoey Fujino rolled using 1d10+1d10+1d6+1d6+1d8+1d8 with rolls of 6,1,3,1,3,5.  Indiscriminate Naptime.

1d10 Wits + 1d10 Attack + 2d6 Area Attack + 1d8 Medical + 1d8 Stunt

Two ones. GREAT. Wonderful. I feel real good about spending a PP on that roll -- although if I understand things right, I immediately get it back from the GM buying my opportunities?

Taking 11 for accuracy, a d6 and d8 for effect to create a "tranquilized" condition... or, y'know, whatever helps me NOTMURDER the shit out of them.

---

Zoey looks back to see how the battle is going against shifty morphy rando-man with the machine gun arm. Was it or imagination, or was he actually less hurt than last she looked. Was he healing? He must be healing. Worse, he's better at it than Zoey is (though she comforts herself in the knowledge that he probably can't heal others like she can). That's very inconvenient.

She can do something about that. Spending time around so many mutants gave her a lot of exposure to how their powers worked... and, presumably, how to break them.

---

Can I, though??? There doesn't seem to be any sort of "Nullify" power or SFX in the entire book, which seems like a hideous oversight. I'd like to try and attack Random's powers somehow! I don't even know where to start figuring out how this would work, so I'll leave it up to you mister GM!

04:15, Today: Zoey Fujino rolled using 1d10+1d10+1d8+1d8 with rolls of 7,7,2,3.  Attack Random's Powers!

1d10 Wits + 1d10 Attack + 1d8 Medical + 1d8 Stunt

That's a little better! Taking 14 for accuracy, and a d8 for effect. I have one PP left.

Ana Sofía broadcasts to the other X-Men, 'Legion is all over the place: near the guards, at the entrance, and in the facility below.'

Then she focuses harder on Legion (specifically those inside the facility), hopefully to convince him that his bodies are needed guarding the entrance, and not at all below with the prisoners.


Willpower d10
Mind Control d8
Psych d8
Enthralling Mind d6
Area Attack (size 2) d6

10:59, Today: Ana Sofia Garcia Mendez rolled 10,6,8,5,3 using d10,d8,d8,d6,d6 with rolls of 10,6,8,5,3.  Turn small group of Legion around.

Good roll!!!

That can be 10+9=18 with a d8 and a d6, and then step the d6 up one, so two d8s.

Still 1 PP.

This message was last edited by the player at 16:01, Thu 25 Feb 2021.

The Legion were standing at the breach, chatting between themselves as they waited for the rest of them to rescue the mutants at the sublevels.

"So what's the score from last night?"  he took a puff from his cigarette and blew the smoke upwards.

“Those will kill you, you know”  Legion scowled, and waved his hand in front of his face, trying to keep the smoke away from his nostrils ”Jesus.  Do you mind?”
This message was last edited by the player at 20:55, Thu 25 Feb 2021.

“Bowling, football, or basketball?”  Legion wondered which game he meant.  There wasn’t a game they didn’t watch.  It was good to know which one he was referring to, exactly.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:12, Thu 25 Feb 2021.

“Will you stop this nonsense already?  We have a job to do, and we can’t be slacking off.  You remember last time?” The more serious of the Legion was losing patience with himself. He tapped his hand against the machine gun he was holding, and pointed at the direction of the beach  “Quiet!! Can’t you hear that? Something’s up”

He finished his sentence, and watched himself wobble on his feet
This message was last edited by the player at 20:10, Thu 25 Feb 2021.

“It’s been such a long day” he yawned “and I’m feeling…kinda tired” he sat down on the ground, trying to keep his eyes open, barely succeeding  “Can you guys cover for me while I take a quick nap?”

Legion rolled 2,1,6,3,4 using 1d8,1d8,1d8,1d8,1d8 with rolls of 2,1,6,3,4.  Resist Zoey's sleep spell.  Total = 10. Legion gains 1d8 stress, which he removes by reducing mob size by 1.
Prowess 1d8
Madrox Mob 1d8,1d8,1d8
Multiple Men Multiple Problems 1d8
Master Medicine 1d8, 1d8

//missed a few d8s on the roll, but too lazy to rewrite the outcome.

This message was last edited by the player at 20:36, Thu 25 Feb 2021.

While some members of the Legion decided to doze off just as the fight at the beach was getting serious, the other Legion, the one at the sublevels, had a sudden change of heart.  His companions were more than capable to finish the job by themselves, he figured.  Better then that he (they) join himself outside and secure the perimeter.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Legion rolled 1,1,5,1,5 using 1d10,1d10,1d8,1d8,1d8 with rolls of 1,1,5,1,5.  resist Ana's mind control.
Willpower 1d10
Madrox Mob 1d8,1d8
Multiple Men, Multiple Problems 1d8
Master Psych 1d10
Total = 10, vs attack rating of 18.
Ana's effect die stepped up to 1d10.

Mob follows Ana's command and leaves the sublevels of the installation.

---

Random could barely keep himself erect, standing on his knees while the Beast was chocking the life out of him, and the idiot Wax pushing him downward toward the ground.  And now his head suddenly felt light, as if he had swollen an entire bottle of volume.

"F*ck"


Random rolled 1,4,3,3 using 1d10,1d8,1d8,1d10 with rolls of 1,4,3,3.  Random's reaction roll to Zoey's attack.
Total = 7.  Zoey's effect die stepped up to 1d10, and Random's complication is now at 1d12.


This message was last edited by the player at 20:36, Thu 25 Feb 2021.

Between the smaller of the two enemy combatants and the Beast, the larger of the two unknown mutants was on the ropes. He looked as though he was on the verge of passing out... so Tank resolved to help him get the rest of the way there. He had no way to contain him, of course. All he could do was punch the guy again and hope it had an effect now.

Prowess d8
Brains Plus Brawn d8
Superhuman Strength 2d10
(SFX: Mighty Blow — Spend 1 PP or add d6 to the doom pool to double Superhuman Strength for one action.)
Combat Expert d8
Random's Complication d12

Frank Guberman rolled 7,5,4,7,5,4 using d8,d8,d10,d10,d8,d12 ((7,5,4,7,5,4)).
Spending 1 PP to keep 3rd die in Total

Total: 19
Effect die: d12

Opportunities: None
Plot Points: 1 remaining

Down on his knees, the giant's face was just-the-right height for Frank's mean right hook.  The punch hit home this time, and no amount of adaptation could save Random from a force of that magnitude.  It was as if his face has been bashed by a battering ram: his head spun around in an unnatural angle, and his lower jaw was cleaved off and carried away by the momentum of the blow. At least there wasn't any blood to go with the gruesome image, but a slow trickle of gooey protoplasmic liquid that composed the giant's body.

Random rolled 6,5,2,2 using 1d10,1d10,1d8,1d8 with rolls of 6,5,2,2.  Random reaction roll.
Total = 11 vs total of 19.
Effect die stepped up from 1d12 (extraordinary success)
Random eliminated.

Wax, that was holding his friend down, only to see Frank knock the daylight out of him, stood up and angrily rebuked Frank:

"You didn't have to do that!  We had him contained!"

Random was going to regenerate, he knew.  It won't take him long.  But still, he considered the use of force excessive, considering he just stood up to his friend in order to make sure the X-Men don't suffer the same fate.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:16, Fri 26 Feb 2021.

"We had him contained as long as you and Beast stood there and held onto him," Tank replied, aghast at how much damage he'd done to the big guy. He was also a little weirded out to be having a debate about excessive force with a super-villain whose name he didn't even know, but he was mostly shocked at the results of his action. "I didn't mean to punch his face off!"

On closer inspection, Tank could see that the large mutant was made of this protoplasmic ooze that was now dripping from where his jaw used to be. His jaw was slumping away into a puddle of it. The 'bullets' his gun-arm fired had been made from it.

"He's... gonna grow that back, right?"

Zoey kneels beside the defeated mutant and performs a quick health check. That last blow was positively explosive and she wanted to make sure Tank hadn't done any permanent damage. More than that, she was curious about the man's biology. She'd long since resolved not to ask questions about where the likes of Cyclops and Serena get all the energy for their powers, but the force the randumb used was a new one on her. Plus, they needed to figure out a way to restrain him while they did whatever the hell-ass they were going to do here.

Legion was probably still on the way, but Zoey wasn't too concerned. If the ordinary human guards could take (some of) him down then no way was he a threat to them.

"When I was nine, I threatened to punch someone's face off. Never thought I'd see it happen." she comments casually. She hums thoughtfully before turning serious, looking up at the pale man with a scrutinizing stare. "We're going to have to do it again if we don't figure something out. I don't want to presume your motivations but if we're to prevent any more unnecessary death we're going to need ideas."

Wax nudged the dislocated jaw with the edge of his foot.  The body part was already decomposing into a pool of gooey substance - the same substance the 'bullets' were made of.

"He'll be fine.  It will take him some time to draw more essence from the astral plane and reform it into a 'Random' shape.  But he'll be fine"

The paler man looked up at Zoey, and Frank.  Now that his companion was down, he wasn't quite sure what to do with the X-Men.  He couldn't let them go about their business and put a stop to their rescue operation.  But he wouldn't like to hurt them, either

"Now what?"

Ana Sofía thinks toward the other X-Men, 'The Legions in the prison below are coming up to help the other Legions, leaving the prison instead of loosing the prisoners. I'm trying to collect them, so be ready.'

Being as Zoey is kneeling, it would be very difficult for anyone to look up at her unless they were shorter than the miniature Chinese senior citizens in some of Serena's animes.

"Astral plane?" Zoey mutters under her breath. "Just gonna put a fuckin' pin in that... Are we talking minutes or hours here?"

Zoey subtly nods to Ana. She desperately wants to ask how many Legions they can safely kill before it counts as a murder; could they just leave one alive? One sounds a lot easier to tie up than a thousand. But she refrains from asking because she is uncertain how fragile Ana's control over the pale man is. If it is, indeed, control and not just a perspective shift.

"I don't know what we do next," Tank admitted. He was relieved to know that he hadn't permanently maimed a fellow mutant, but he barely had time to think about it before the next big problem arrived. "As far as I can tell, there's nothing special about Legion except his strength in numbers. If we let him multiply, he'll overwhelm us all."

He snapped his fingers when the idea hit him.

"We need to box him in, keep him fighting in a place where he's limited in how many duplicates he can hit us with. We can't let him come outside. We need to go inside and face him in a confined area."

"No" the man shook his head
"I can't allow you to interfere with our rescue operation.  We're going to set our brothers and sisters free. Can't leave them to rot in those cells"

"I wonder how many of them said something similar before being put away to rot in cells." Zoey stands and turns to the pale man. "You say 'free our brothers and sisters,' I say 'they abused their freedom.' People don't go through the effort of subduing super-people and putting them in super-prisons because they're fun at parties."

Serena clapped and hopped excitedly for Frank. "Good job, Tank! What a hit! A real Rocky Marciano!"

She was completely unfazed by the "gore," since it didn't seem real.

She held up her hand as if in a classroom.

"Questions! Who is in the cells, why are they in the cells, and why do you want to get them out of the cells?"

From a kitty, hiding.  'I'm at the entrance to the prison now, I'll let you know when I see legions coming out, can you tell me when the last one does?  Also what should we do now?'  The first question though directed to Ana was sent to all the x-men-ish people who had come, the second was more directed towards the Professor and Tank.

Ana Sofía's just been hiding behind cover and concentrating. But what she's been concentrating on has been shifting. Knowing they're going to try to outmaneuver the others to cover up their specific aims with this freedom stuff, she's diving in.


Subtly digging into Wax's mind to find out who they're specifically trying to free.

Willpower d10
Telepathy d10
One Step Ahead of You d8
Psych d8

17:27, Today: Ana Sofia Garcia Mendez rolled 9,3,3,8 using d10,d10,d8,d8 with rolls of 9,3,3,8.  Digging in Wax's Mind.

Total of 9+8=17 with a d10 effect die.

Still 1 PP

Wax shrugged "All I know is that they're mutants,  held without due process. That's enough for me" he drew a deep breath, knowing they won't be able to resolve their differences by talking.  Not right now, anyways
This message was last edited by the player at 13:06, Sat 27 Feb 2021.

A dozen or so men came into view on the cliff overlooking the beach.  The Legion was too late to help Random, but would still be there in time to further delay the heroes.  Without pausing to inspect the situation, he quickly started on the winding trail leading down to the beach
This message was last edited by the player at 12:49, Sat 27 Feb 2021.

Figuring that out now.

Zoey glances at Serena. She lacks eloquence, but does frequently cut to the heart of the matter. Presumably the time she saves making idle conversation gets spent working on those braids. Braids which... they share now. Zoey takes one of her gifted braids between her fingers and gives it an exploratory twirl betwixt her fingers. Yeah... too girly for her, but at least it keeps it out of her face. She tosses it back behind her shoulder and returns her attentions to the pale man.

"That's not very reassuring. There could be anyone down there with that description. You could release Apocalypse Bringer, bringer of apocalypses. I don't want an apocalypse." Zoey regards the man carefully for several seconds longer. Really, at this point, all Xavier had told them was this was a mutant holding facility. Zoey was taking it largely on belief in the man's character that if he wanted it defended, then it was a thing worth defending. It was still a government facility however, and she didn't trust government.

"Due process is a sham and fatally compromised by the corps. If I know government, there's probably a few innocents down there. How about this; we have a telepath with us, we'll check the cells we pass as we do our thing, and if we find anyone who doesn't belong here we'll let them go with Legion. In exchange, you get the hell off this island and don't come back."

She turns to Ana, who doesn't seem to have changed her expression since they landed. "Can you do that, A- uh, Windtalker? Everybody down with this plan?"

"I'm not sure I am," Tank said. "They came in here guns blazing. We can't just give them a free pass on that."

Serena nods rapidly as Zoey explicates.

"You get the justice you pay for," she says. By her body language, it's clear she is supporting Zoey's statements.

Then she poses dramatically and flexes her left arm, putting her right hand on her bicep, in that classic determination pose. "Or that you take with your own strength!"

She leans backwards, bending at the waist, to look at Tank upside-down. The maneuver nicely shows off her figure. "Who's 'we,' ke-mo-sa-be? Did you vote for locking up Superiors without a trial?" The capitalization of "Superiors" is evident in her tone, even though she has a silly grin.

"Actually, I didn't say anything of the sort," Tank replied. Serena wasn't
for taking much seriously, and really didn't seem to take Tank seriously at all. "What I said was more a commentary on the 'leave and don't come back' plan. These guys broke into a Federal prison and started killing people. They don't get to pack up and go home to have a nice dinner."

"Okay then," Zoey replies. "Since you've got some brains to go with that brawn, tell me then; what would you have be done with him? Tell me your alternative! They've already left super-person prison in quite a state; you want to risk throwing them in some non-super-person prison?"

She sticks her hands in her pockets. "I'm here to do the job, with a side order of making sure the job is just. As long as Slenderman over here gets the fuck out of my way, he's not part of the job anymore. We'll deal with him some other day if we have to, and in the meantime he can simmer on why we left him alive."

"I really do appreciate your offer, but I won't turn my back on my brothers and sisters.  If my life is the price I have to pay for Mutant Liberation, then so be it"

Not that Wax wanted to unleash 'apocalypse' upon the world, but even if he could trust their telepath to identify the ones who didn't deserve to be in prison, how could they ever agree who does and who doesn't in the first place?  'one man terrorist is another man's freedom fighter', afterall

Slowly, and reluctantly, he raised his fists up and assumed a fighting stance

"I am ready"

Beast was a bit unsettled to see the giant’s face literally being blown off by Frank’s punch.  He was no stranger to violence, but like the Brotherhood mutant they were talking to, he too didn’t want to see anyone dying.  Mutant, or human.   He thought Zoey’s suggestion to be the perfect solution to their problem – if only he could get the stubborn man to listen!

"I share your concern for the liberty of our kind, but this- " McCoy pointed at the smoking wreckage "this will not help us get there.  Every time we react with violence, whether justified or not, we push them to use even more extreme measures.  It is a vicious cycle, and unless we break it the future will hold no hope for either of us"

Legion finally made it to the beach. He wanted to say something, but first he had to catch his breath.  The dash from the installation wasn't a long one, but his physique wasn't extraordinary.  He needed a moment to recover

“Nice trick you played on me up there” he wasn't sure which one of them was responsible for the sleeping spell, so he looked into the eyes of each and every one of them - at the same time

"But I’m here now, and I got you outnumbered.  So why don’t you sit down and chill, while we take care of business, OK?"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:58, Sun 28 Feb 2021.

"No, not okay."

Tank wasn't about to let Legion tell him what to do. He was too preoccupied with Zoey telling him what to do. And no offense to her, but she was getting it wrong. In her drive to let the supposedly innocent go free, she was prepared to let the guilty go too if they stayed out of her way? This was the problem with calling an audible: if it wasn't exactly right, it was utter chaos.

"The prison is still functioning as a prison," he replied to Zoey's commentary. "Otherwise everyone would have swarmed out already, and we wouldn't be having this conversation. "So Stretch Armstrong over there can still go into a cell when we're done here.

"You want to release some of the prisoners? Fine. I can live with that, as long as they're the right ones. But I won't let murderers go free because it's convenient for you."

He turned to the other mutant, whose name he still didn't know.

"That goes double for you. Your boy's going to jail, and if you try to stop it, you're going with him."

Zoey spins around as duplication man dares to make his stupid presence known. She takes a few steps forward and smiles joylessly. "You must be Legion! Just who I was hoping to see. I was hoping you could clarify something about your powers to me. As long as one of you survives you haven't actually been meaningfully harmed, right?"

She raises one arm, fingers going into a pre-snapping gesture. C'mon asshole, she thinks viciously at him. Give me the excuse.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:01, Sun 28 Feb 2021.

Ana Sofía is still hiding behind the remains of the vehicle she dove behind to dodge the bullets. I hasn't seemed the right time to come out yet. She thinks to the others, 'He seems to be telling the truth about liberating mutants. But I suspect someone in charge is looking to free someone or several in particular.' Ana Sofía tries to dig a little deeper to find out who's giving the orders.


Willpower d10
Telepathy d10
One Step Ahead of You d8
Psych d8

10:08, Today: Ana Sofia Garcia Mendez rolled 5,7,4,5 using d10,d10,d8,d8 with rolls of 5,7,4,5.  Digging further into Wax's Mind.

So 12 with an effect die of d10.

One of the Legion beamed back at Zoey:

“Well – not really.  I am one, and many, at the same time.  Each of us is unique, a facet of the Maker.  We are free to live our own lives, and when we merge back our life experiences are assimilated with the Whole.  Pretty neat, isn’t it?”

The Legion standing next to the one disclosing all his secrets to Zoey rolled his eyes:
“Have you gone mad!?? Next you’re going to ask her out for coffee”

“Well, she is kinda cute” he admitted  “But you know I have a strict no-dating-a-woman-who-threatens-to-kill-me policy” he stopped and gave Zoey another appreciative look “…but maybe just this one time?”
This message was last edited by the player at 20:10, Sun 28 Feb 2021.

Serena stands up straight again and points back the way they had come. "The only bodies on the beach," she points at Legion with her other hand, "Were that guy."

While Legion was considering whether he should kill or date Zoey (and every other hero for that matter!), Wax gave Frank an incredulous look

Murderers? so insulted was he by the accusation, that he dropped his fists so he can look Frank in the eye
"We haven’t killed anyone.  The soldiers surrendered once they were all out of ammo, having wasted it all on Legion"

The only bodies on the beach were exclusively of the clone, who overwhelmed the defenders by sheer numbers.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:20, Sun 28 Feb 2021.

If the soldiers weren't dead, then where did they go, Tank wondered. He wasn't trusting the 'non-violent' story. It didn't add up. But if all the bodies were really just Legion, Tank would have to accept that for the moment.

This was more complicated than he thought.

The big guy had shot at them, but hadn't fired at the soldiers? Where the hell were the soldiers, then? Tank was under the assumption that the bodies were piled up somewhere, maybe inside... but that maybe wasn't going to bear up. He'd hate to make things worse based on a bad assumption.

"Fine. But don't think for one minute that I trust any of you."

The analytical part of Zoey was crunching the biomolecular transformations necessary to power her abilities, while the more imaginative part of her imagined her winding her arm back to bowl a strike.

It's been a long time since anyone hit on her, and this was the last place she expected to have to deal with such things. Her brain just crashed and left her there blinking unwittingly as she tried to reboot. "I- I don't date guys," she says, meekly, as she struggles to regain her composure. That wasn't happening quickly and she couldn't remember whether Legion had actually given her the answer she wanted, so instead she glances back at the rest of the X-Men and listens in silence.

I'm not getting caught off guard by that again, Zoey thinks furiously to herself. How embarrassing!

Thanks to one of Legion over-talking, she goes to work before Legion can try to correct for it. She's still in hiding, though, getting to work while everyone is talking it out. Those Legions need to know they're needed back at the landing site, too; the soldiers can be left alone as they are no longer a threat.


Willpower d10
One Step Ahead of You d8
Mind Control d8
Psych d8
Enthralling Mind d6
Area Attack (size 5) 4d6

18:43, Today: Ana Sofia Garcia Mendez rolled 6,2,8,2,5,3,1,2,5 using d10,d8,d8,d8,d6,d6,d6,d6,d6 with rolls of 6,2,8,2,5,3,1,2,5.  Mind Control Legion guarding the soldiers.

That's one d6 opportunity. +1 PP

5+8=13 with effect dice of d10, d8, d8, d6, d6 (and then one gets stepped up).

"Are we settled now? Great!" She claps her hands together, once, and grins, cheeky as ever. "Anybody know how to hogtie Discount Mega-Man? Or got some rope? Once we take care of that, we should get moving."

She waves excitedly at the identical guys on the hill.

'Ana... er, Windtalker... what did you mean before when you said most of the soldiers were still alive?' Tank called out in his mind. He'd been blindsided by the Brotherhood claiming that they hadn't killed anyone. He wanted to know where the confusion had come from, or if it was just an outright lie.

Ana Sofía's reply is choppy and distracted, as though she's really focusing on something else. 'Can't...find...minds...of...dead...so...don't...know.

"Nor do I trust you, quisling" Wax answered Frank in kind.  He was taking quite a risk himself;  could he really trust the X-Men to free the 'innocent' prisoners?
This message was lightly edited by the player at 16:12, Mon 01 Mar 2021.

"Truce is gonna be awful short if you keep throwing around the ten-dollar insults," Tank replied, dryly. He wasn't going to rise to the bait, but this guy needed to watch his tongue. Tank knew what a quisling was, and didn't appreciate the comment in the slightest. "I'm not collaborating with an invader; I'm trying to stop guys like you from triggering World War Three."

“We’re trying to save Mutant lives” the pale man obviously couldn’t take a hint  “Lives you’re willing to sacrifice to placate your human overlords.   What would have happened if one of those mutants happened to be a close friend of yours?  Or a relative?  You would have left them to rot in these cells for the rest of their lives?” 
This message was last edited by the player at 15:55, Tue 02 Mar 2021.

“Umm, sorry to interrupt you in the middle of your conversation and all, but weren't we supposed to STOP anyone from interfering with our mission” Legion called after Wax, who was already starting to accompany the X-Men up the hill
“We don’t need the X-Men’s help.  You’re taking too big of a risk here”

“Yea, he’s right! I’m sorry Wax, but this is the wrong call” The Legion moved his rifle’s safety selection lever from ‘safe’ to ‘Auto’, and aimed the barrel directly at his friend
“Stop, and turn back, before I blow a hole through you”

Wax slowly lifted his hands above his head and turned to face the Legion

“I’m only trying to save lives.  Would you kill our own kind just so we can free the others?  How is that helping our cause?"

Zoey was up and done with this conversation, especially once the weapon safeties clicked off. She races through her usual nonlethal option, which at this point was so second nature to her that all the conscious prompting her brain needed to generate the usual calculations were the three keywords: hypothalamus, GABA, sleep.

"Can we please just get on with the mission?" Zoey mutters as Legions fall.

---

11:04, Today: Zoey Fujino rolled 24 using 1d10+1d10+1d8+1d8+1d6+1d6 with rolls of 6,5,3,5,1,4.

Wits, Attack, Medical, Stunt, Area Attack. Result 11, d10+d8+d6 effect. Watcher buys opportunity, so still at 1 PP.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:15, Tue 02 Mar 2021.

"Hey, hold it," Tank moved between the Legion with the gun and his intended target. "Nobody's shooting anybody. Wax — Your name is Wax? What kind of a name is Wax? — is just trying to find a middle ground we can all live with."

With guns around, Ana Sofía is feeling much better behind the cover she found than showing herself. At least she can think at her friends. 'There are way too many of Legion at the beach watching all the guards. Like a thousand. I can't get through to them.'

So on with another idea, before Legion can think of the vulnerability. 'Where is the creator? Any of Legion want to let me know?'


Search the nearby Legion mob's minds for the location of their creator.

Willpower d10
Telepethy d10
Psych d8
One Step Ahead of You d8

11:54, Today: Ana Sofia Garcia Mendez rolled 9,7,7,3 using d10,d10,d8,d8 with rolls of 9,7,7,3.  Looking for the creator in Legion's minds.

That's 16 with a d10 effect die.

Still 2 PP.

Serena had busied herself with getting some nylon rope from the survival kit under the copilot seat of the plane she had taken to the beach with Zoey. Those survival kits were sure packed with goodies! She had accumulated a waterproof high-caliber hunting rifle, a flashlight, two colored smoke grenades, a box of flares and a flaregun, some MREs, hand-cranked radio, and other goodies, all tossed into a pile, except the rifle, which she had set down gingerly.

When she found the rope, she shouted with delight and went to tie up Discount Mega-Man, since the other men were having a dick-measuring contest instead of doing what they came to do.

"Leave it to women to do the jobs men won't," she said, as she passed Zoey to fetch the second rope.

"It's an empty threat.  He knows there's no way he can hurt me" nevertheless, Wax still had his hands over his head "Come on, Legion; there's no way you're going to win this. Put down the rifles and come with us.  If the X-Men do renege on their promise, I'll need you there with me"

Legion sighed.  If he presses the issue, he was only going to get himself killed, and without achieving anything.  Besides, he was feeling kinda tired, and not much in the mood for fighting.  With a pull of his shoulders, he moved the safety latch back to its place and pointed the barrels at the ground

“Fine! But If you’re wrong about this, you will have to answer to HIM”

He looked sideways at Frank, and the others

”Alright, lets get a move on, before Sabertooth decides to eviscerate the prison guards.  If he hadn’t already”
This message was last edited by the player at 19:17, Wed 03 Mar 2021.

While the others were talking, Serena quickly tied what was left of Random up.  It was unclear if a plastic cord was going to keep him down, once he awakes, but it was the best she could do under the circumstances short of melting the whole of him to goo.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:39, Thu 04 Mar 2021.

"Your guy Sabertooth eviscerating the guards would certainly undercut your argument that you were non-violent," Tank said as they proceeded towards the prison. "You sure he got the memo?"

"He does have a temper problem" Wax feebly admitted, and quickened his pace

The prison was surrounded by two sets of ten feet tall walls with barbed wire running on top of them.  Fortified guard towers outfitted with machine guns dotted the perimeter, and the sole entrance to the facility was behind a double set of steel doors.  And all those security measures were completely ineffective in stopping the Brotherhood mutants.

Like on the beach, there were multiple bodies of the Legion lying around.  The front gate has been blasted to smithereens, the gun emplacement on the left side has collapsed, and the one on the right was still burning.   The only thing missing from the crime scene were the soldiers tasked with defending the facility.  Those were all gone without a trace, supposedly taken captive without being killed.

If they'd really done all this without killing anyone, Tank would have to admit he was impressed. It was an awful lot of property damage for a total lack of a body count. (Well, except Legion, but apparently he didn't count.) How they could blow up a gun emplacement and still not kill anyone he might never understand... or believe.

He kept going, moving inside.

Zoey scoffs and turns away from Legion, instead watching as Serena ties up mystery ghost energy boy. She frowns a little. "I think you need a jar," she points out, "not a rope. And I'm not sure there's a jar on the planet strong enough."

Still, points for trying.

Talk of this Sabertooth didn't sit well with Zoey. She doesn't like what it says about a man's intelligence that he'd let himself be named after an extinct cat so defined by its inefficient means of killing as to take it as their moniker. Or, perhaps more relevantly, that such an individual had so little esteem from his supposed allies.

Sabertooth... hadn't she heard that name around the mansion before? It sounded vaguely familiar but she couldn't quite place it. Her sense of unease deepens.

---

Zoey surveys the destruction as they approach the main facility.

"I take it that's Kilo Man's handiwork," Zoey comments, taking Serena's Discount Mega Man and permutating it in her inimitable fashion. "If you really did that much damage without a body count, color me impressed."

She looks around at the legion of Legions. "Goddamn, how little value does this asshole have for himself?" she mutters.

Wax nodded in response “His name’s Random”.  The giant’s arm gun didn’t fire real tank shells, but slugs made from the same substance as his own body.  But despite not carrying an explosive payload, the force was still great enough to pierce right through three feet of reinforced concrete, leaving behind nothing but fine powder.  Ordinary men, no matter how well trained and prepared they were, simply had no chance against the assault.

More dead Legion bodies were found inside the inner courtyard, more remnants of armored vehicles and destroyed gun emplacements.  Up ahead in front of them was the door to the main building.   Despite easily weighting a metric ton, said door was easily ripped off its hinges and tossed some fifty feet away, where the heroes now found it.

“We’re out of time.  Quick!” McCoy could no longer afford to wait for the others.  Something very bad was happening at the lower levels at this very moment, and he’s just been made painfully aware of it “Quick!”  he leaped forward, over the door, and into the main building.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:05, Fri 05 Mar 2021.

Tank raced into the prison to follow the Beast. It seemed that the shit had hit the fan.

"His name's Kilo Man now, sorry," Zoey says, not feeling sorry at all.

Beast's reaction perplexed her. Maybe he thought the opposing mutants were lying about having broken into the facility, and seeing the door wrenched asunder suddenly made the reality of the situation a little too real for him. They're not out of time until they'll all dead, but Zoey doesn't feel like contradicting the blue man right now. Her brain's still a little foggy from all the crosstalk earlier. Best to just follow their elder's need for the time being.

Zoey can't match the Beast's speed, but does the best she can without overly fatiguing herself.

From a long way off a very concerned kitty's mind contacted those of her friends she was familiar enough with to reach easily, with perhaps faint echos left over for Beast and Sailor Moon Power.  'Hurry, There's a monster down here killing people and Barnell just ran off after it.  Use the elevator, bottom floor, I sent an injured man back up.' The thoughts and feelings accompanying the communication were of fear, disgust, horror, concern, but oddly not panic despite the accompanying images that came with her thoughts.  A woman throat torn out and coated in blood, a man left in a bloody elevator as the doors shut, holding in his intestines, both in some kind of lab outfits but not overtly military.

Beast didn't waste any time surveying the slaughterhouse.  More Legion bodies loitering around. More blood.  It was immaterial now.  He had to get to the lower level before it was too late.  He ran - through the main hall, another security door, and down the corridor leading to the elevator, leaving behind size-twenty footprints in the puddles of blood.

The elevator doors opened up just as he arrived, revealing inside.... a bloody torso of what, judging by his stained lab coat, used to be a doctor.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 15:01, Sat 06 Mar 2021.

Tank struggled to keep up with Beast. Tank was fast, but Beast was fast. And Beast could keep his footing even in puddles of blood, where Tank had to work at it to keep from slipping. He'd only catch up if Beast held the elevator for him, he realized as he made a mad dash down the last hall.

At this point, Zoey was starting to get a fanciful notion in her head that Legion's blood smelled different than others'. She got the opportunity to test that hypothesis when she finally managed to catch up with the boys. As she was gulping down lungfuls of air to recuperate from their mad sprint (they hadn't left her the option of a reasonable sprint, unfortunately) she also sucked down the wonderful ferric scent of doctor insides.

Nope, she decides as she dry-retches. Blood is blood and should stay inside the body at all times.

"I- hate- this- place," Zoey makes known, each hoarse syllable punctuated by another gasp for air.

"Kilo Man! Hah!" Serena responded to Zoey's renaming of Discount Mega Man.

She was getting fed up with Dr. McCoy; his self-important act of being some kind of high and mighty mentor did not at all match his actions.

Oh well! She could smell the cool superpower fight incoming, and that was exciting. Okay, so the smell was metaphorical. The gas mask retrieved from the magic woojie old timey fighter plane prevented Serena from actually smelling anything but the mask, which was very fortunate. If she had to breathe in the stank of all the carnage, she would probably be retching like Zoey was.

She held out a wet handkerchief to Zoey. "Water," she said, "If you breathe through it it should make the nausea go away faster."

Zoey takes the offered handkerchief and breathes carefully as instructed. It occurs to her then that she could probably use her mutation to suppress her gag reflex, but why bother when... huh.

She looks up at Serena, or at least what she can see of Serena. "Never would've thought you as the mundane solution sort."

Ana Sofía gets up from her hiding spot to see everyone running off. She glances at the one and many bad guys, not wanting to get shot if she starts running. She says to them, "Do you know what's happening down there? Are mutants dying, too?"

“Excuse me, excuse me, coming through”

More and more and more of the Legion squeezed into the elevator, till none of those inside could move a muscle.   A clone of him that was left outside pushed more of himself in, like they were Japanese salaryman on a Tokyo subway. Finally, he grinned, bowed, and waved as the elevator door closed shut.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:49, Sun 07 Mar 2021.

“You know what would be the worst?” one of the Legion pipped up as the elevator started to descend  “If this thing breaks down, and we’re all stuck in here together for hours until they rescue us.  The worst, right?”

"Don't make me hurt you," Tank replied. Legion could apparently make as many of himself as needed, but couldn't he have waited until they got downstairs?! The guy was handy, but apparently not very bright. But to lighten the tone, he added, "Right now, I could crush three of you just by taking a deep breath."

Zoey pushes the Legions back out. She was willing to squeeze into Professor Xavier's cramped little death tube with classmates but she was not going to get crammed in like a canned sardine by this flippant little shit who thought it funny to play on her anxieties. Her cooperative spirit only extended so far! "No no no!" she yells at him. "Shut up, shut it up, shut all of it right the fuck up! There's doubtlessly a kajillion of you downstairs, the other fuckillion of you can wait! Out!"

"Fine, fine, don't sweat it" a few of the Legion literally 'walked' into the ones standing next to them.  Where there were a dozen of them, there were now only six, making the elevator ride a lot less cramped.

Zoey stares. Where... where does the mass go?! To hell with it all. Zoey walks to a corner of the elevator and commandeers it, spreading her arms to mark the borders of the Imperial Zoeydom.

The lowest level in the prison didn’t look like a prison at all.  A long, well lighted hallway painted in pure white extended in front of them, with multiple doors on either side and windows to look inside.   There were a couple of trauma stretchers parked at the far end, an IV stand…

This wasn’t a prison.  It was a hospital.  Or a lab.   And if it wasn’t for a pair of man’s legs, the woman whose throat has been ripped out, and a panicked Kate sprinting right in their direction, it wouldn’t have looked any different than a typical E.R.

Zoey bursts out of the elevator, pushing aside tanks and beasts alike to be first out of the big sliding steel cage that could collapse at any moment. She wasn't destined to be the monarch of the Imperial Zoeydom apparently.

Once she'd steadied herself and taken a look around, Zoey thought she might've preferred her little nation-state. At least she knew what to expect from it and didn't force her to ask any serious questions about whether she was doing the right thing. At the moment though she chose to fixate on the panicked Kate.

"Tabby?!" Zoey asks, jogging up to meet her. "How did you get down here? What's going on?"

Seeing them running off before she can ask anything, Ana Sofía follows. Hopelessly slower than those with enhanced speed and starting well after the others, but still a decent runner, she arrives after the elevator has closed and started descending. She asks those at the top, indifferent to whether they're good guys or bad guys, "Does anyone know what's going on down there?"

"What happened is that the Brotherhood has abandoned their doctrine of non-violence," Frank said, giving Wax the side-eye. He stepped out of the elevator cautiously, as though expecting an attack any second. He was. "What'd that last? Ten whole minutes?"

"It's not about me," she replied, with a smile, to Zoey.

Serena did not appreciate being squeezed into the elevator with a bunch of smelly, identical creeps, and she almost vaporized a few of them, but they decided to back off.

Upon observing the hallway, she remarked, with a deadpan tone, "Oh gee, look at this, a government prison turns out to be a lab for unwilling human subjects, probably to 'cure' them of being mutants. Next we'll find out that the sun rises in the east."

"Monster Run!" Kate yelled when Zoey stepped out and only looking over her shoulder to not see a towering monster of a man still standing there keeps her from trying to tackle fishgivinggirl right back into the elevator.

The clearly panicked girl looked almost twice as large as normal, but that was probably due to the fur covering her fully werewolf or cat like body sticking out and puffed up, making her look actually rather soft and fluffy, and not at all any more intimidating as nature intended.

Something Zoey can then swiftly attest to when Kate did go ahead and grab her in a hug.  It took a moment of gasping to collect enough breath and presence of mind for her to speak again.  "Barnell, its got Barnell!"  But even though she's looking back down the corridor, and the nervous fear in her voice for their missing member Kate doesn't look like she wants to lead the way, the girl well and truly spooked.

"Damn it!" Tank shouted, bulling his way past several Legion to get out of the elevator. "Barnell!"

Barnell was so damned eager to please he was going to get himself killed, and he wasn't even supposed to be here. Tank wasn't going to let that happen if there was any way to prevent it, but he didn't really know what he was up against.

He also didn't seem to care as he charged down the hall, looking for the younger mutant.

Humans being naturally fairly large creatures would of course think the fluffed-up hair cute on a lap kitty, but on something of comparable size it really can give a bit of a spook to someone not expecting it. Tabby can count herself fortunate that her natural empathic abilities make her identity obvious despite whatever appearance she assumes.

Unlike Frank, Zoey hesitates. She wants to go rescue Barnell as much as he does, but this Sabertooth guy sounds like bad news and she doesn't want to fatigue herself fighting some monster. Maybe Sabertooth is the monster?

Zoey gives a pointed look at Slenderman to see what he thinks of the situation.

Tank found Barnell on the third room to his right.  The young mutant knee has been shattered, and his arm was bleeding profusely from a wound so deep that his bone has been left exposed.  If he was going to survive this, it would be doubtful if he could ever walk, or fly again.

And Barnell was the one with the least severe injuries in the room.

Lying on the floor was a man in scrubs, bleeding out after his arm has been severed.  On the operating table, a very dead mutant (Frank could tell he was a mutant, because he had porcupine-like quills covering his back, and a rodent-like nose) had his chest cut open and heart and lungs surgically removed.  The operation was likely still in process when the 'monster' burst into the room - scalpels, knives, bone cutters, and various other surgical instruments were neatly arranged on top of the nearby trolley.

As for the monster itself - it was nowhere to be seen.  If it was still lurking about, or has elected to climb up the stairway not far from the elevator, would be anyone's guess.

Wax was already impossible pale.  Looking upon the carnage, at the set of torso-less legs and woman whose throat has been ripped out, turned him a sickly shade of green.

"Sabertooth, you fucking maniac!"

He rushed out of the elevator, McCoy close behind, and followed Frank right into the   operating room.  If he was physically capable of puking, he would have at that point.

"Holy shit," Tank swore, dropping to his knees next to Barnell. He paid no attention to the blood he was kneeling in, not wanting to think about how much of it was Barnell's. He surveyed the damage to the young mutant and decided that the arm/wing was the worst, and thus the one that needed his immediate attention. Getting right back to his feet, Tank began looking around for something he could use as a tourniquet. "Hold on, kid."

It didn't take long to find the sort of rubber tube that a phlebotomist might use — or a junkie — for tying off a vein in preparation for a needle. Tank used this to tie Barnell's arm as tightly as possible.

"You're going to be okay," he lied. There was no way the kid was going to be okay. "Did you see where he went?"

There was no question of who 'he' was. It was whoever had done this to him. Tank had to stop him... somehow.

Barnell's body convulsed when Frank tied the tourniquet around what was left of an already fragile arm.  He was in so much pain, and lost so much blood, that Tank's question didn't register:

"Tank" he whispered as he reached out with his good hand to grasp his shoulder "Tell them...tell them I'm no chicken"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:47, Mon 08 Mar 2021.

Zoey follows along where all the other motivated mutants lead her, although soon as she sees Barnell she slides smoothly into Solve The Problem mode. The last time she had worked her biokinetic powers on someone this badly hurt it had been a mere simulation, but she had been training for this eventuality. It was not Barnell she expected to be working on, but she had been touching up on avian-hominid biology just in case. She sure was glad she did now.

Zoey rushed over and knelt by Barnell's side, working her mutant magic.

---

15:48, Today: Zoey Fujino rolled 21 using 1d10+1d10+1d8 with rolls of 3,10,8.  Medicine with biokinesis sprinkles.

18 result, d10 for effect, and a PP for stress-healing. Zero PP now!

Ana Sofía thinks to her friends, "I could really use a hand up here. Legion's releasing the whole prison population while you're all dealing with whatever you've got."

«Let them go,» Tank thought in return, bitterly and with barely concealed rage. «Let them all go. Nobody deserves what they've been doing here. It's unconscionable.»

What had the porcupine-mutant done to be vivisected? What had been his crime? Was even murder heinous enough that he deserved to be taken apart on a lab table? No. No crime deserved this degree of punishment. Even this crime.

"We need to stop Sabertooth," he said aloud. "He's killing everything in his path. Nothing else matters."

Kate followed the others nervously, keeping watch for the monster, Sabertooth apparently, just in case he came back.  She did her best to smooth back down her fur but it was clear that she was still nervous as she didn't fully enter into the medical room, instead staying just outside and watching the hallway nervously.

She would have agreed with Tank but wasn't listening in on anyone's thoughts at the moment.  Instead she just asked in a subdued voice.  "Will he be okay?"

Zoey doesn't look up as she answers Ana; her words are halting and erratic as she concentrates intensely on her work, not to mention the more mundane medical tasks. This room was built for surgery so there had to be resources to use here. "He'll be okay if I have anything to say about it. Hand me that blue container."

"You lot need to take care of Extinct Cat Man, and stop Legion from releasing all the inmates. I'll make sure Barnell recovers, and anyone who tries to slip by me will be put to beddy-bye. Go!"

Serena followed Tank. Even if she had wanted to get out in front, the corridors were small enough that he very definitely blocked the way. She did not, however, hesitate to charge after the Corridor Filler.

"I doubt he was an organ donor," she said, at least a little bit smug, in regards to the eviscerated porcupine-man. More seriously, and with contempt tapping at the edges of her tone, "Vikings would do this specifically as a form of torture, to make an example of someone in a very painful way. I think that was probably part of this: intimidating the rest of the inmates. If this guy really was unwilling, and he probably was, knowing the government, I wouldn't put it past them to murder and cut him up just for fun."

Medicine was not her strong suit. So, she first looked around for a possible direction of travel for the monster or Sabertooth or whatever had caused the carnage. Then, when Zoey started giving doctorish orders, Serena listened, getting said blue container for the en-braided, grumpy brunette.

"Doctor," she said, holding it out for Zoey to take.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:27, Wed 10 Mar 2021.

Kate normally one to listen, well, sometimes one to listen, when her elders say something hesitates as Zoey and Frank give opposite instructions.  "Ah... Are you sure?  What they did is... really bad, just as bad as"  She swallowed nervously, "Sabertooth killing people.  Stopping him makes sense, but leaving anyone here seems... wrong."

Kate definitely seems to be hesitant in offering her suggestion, it's pretty clear she's still shook from her encounter with the oversized extinct cat man and doesn't like that her friends are divided on what to do.

Not sure where to go, Tank continued on his way. Barnell would be okay with Zoey helping him, he hoped... but there was nothing more that Tank could do for the boy. His job was to stop this Sabertooth character from killing anyone else.

"Sabertooth!" he shouted as he ran down the hall. "Come out and fight someone who can fight back!"

"Inmate problem later, Sabertooth problem now," Zoey insists to Kate. She can feel the sentiment in Zoey's mind; yes, this situation is all kinds of fucked up, but its not going to get any more fucked up while all the doctors are dead. They can discuss what to do with the inmates later when time pressures aren't forcing them to jump to conclusions.

Zoey could immediately tell that it would take lots of work to put Barnell back together again.  His kneecap was shattered, as well as the top of his shin.  She’ll have to remove the splinters and bone fragments before she could properly heal his leg.  His arm, however, was more straightforward – regrowing the muscle tissue around the exposed bone and mending the wound only took a short minute, and once she was done her patient could finally move his fingers again.

“That’s…” he looked up at her with awe, unable to find the right words.  This was as miraculous as Jesus healing the paralytic.  He knew Zoey wasn’t an actual god made flesh, but the difference looked semantic at this point.

“Thank you”

The Watcher rolled 13,10 using 3d8,3d6 with rolls of 8,4,1,2,4,4.  doom pool reaction to Zoey. Total - 12 vs total of 18. Zoey effect die stepped up to 1d12.  Barnell is no longer stressed out, though he still suffers from a trauma of 1d6.

This message was last edited by the player at 13:49, Wed 10 Mar 2021.

McCoy stopped and sniffed the air out.  If Sabertooth was nearby, he could easily catch his scent.  Only he wasn’t:

“Sabertooth isn’t here.  Must have taken the stairs” he informed the others.

And since he wholeheartedly agreed with Zoey and Frank that stopping the murderer was their first priority, before anything else, he sprang into action and headed right back toward the staircase at the end of the long corridor.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:45, Wed 10 Mar 2021.

In reply to Beast (msg # 257):

Kate slipped quietly out of the way of everyone who was moving so rapidly to find out where Sabertooth was, before realizing they had a better way of finding him.  'sourceofcookies, Do you know where "sabertooth" the big scary monster man is right now?  He's not downstairs anymore are you safe?'

Looking from Zoey and Barnell to the hunting trio and back she waffled over which group to stay with.  Just not quite sure where she should go.  Barnell couldn't fight but fishgivinggirl was really strong, not that Kate herself would be much help to either group...

When in doubt, follow Dr. McCoy, Tank told himself, and did so.

Following Saberooth proved to be easy, once they’ve entered the stairwell.  The exit door on the floor above them has been punched open, and the fresh screams, followed by the sounds of gunfire, was a clear indication that the psychopath’s murder spree was only just beginning.  The ‘battle’ was brutally short – by the time the heroes made it through the door they found the huge beast of a man holding the warden up by his throat, feet dangling in the air.  Then with a slight squeeze he snapped his neck and dropped the limp body to the floor with a dissatisfied grunt.

The prison turned awfully quiet.  No cheers from the prisoners to their would-be-savior.  No cries of shock or terror.  Nothing.  The prisoners in the galleries above them were all incapacitated, lying in their beds, shackled, and hooked up to the IVs which were slowly dripping deliberating drugs straight into their bloodstreams.

Sniff sniff

The beast slowly turned face the mutants once it sensed their arrival.   The only thing that kept him from attacking them on sight was the presence of Wax.  But he better explain himself fast, or Sabertooth would have no problem adding his corpse to the pile lying at his feet.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:58, Wed 10 Mar 2021.

Zoey worked quick, especially with the help of actual medical supplies. Reattaching ligaments and mending torn muscle fiber was pretty easy, rather like welding. Fishing out the contaminants was harder and took a steady hand and a pair of tweezers. There would be long term damage that might take some weeks to heal, but Zoey could persuade the body to reconnect nerves and dispose of nonfunctional scar tissue in a way that modern medicine could only look upon and envy. As long as her patient was alive, there was virtually nothing she couldn't do with enough time.

As for Sabertooth... between Tank, Beast, and (presumably) Wax's physical abilities and Ana's psychic mindfuckery, she didn't think the X-Men would need her help to take down the roving murder machine. She stayed with Barnell and watched the route up to the surface.

If things got really bad, Zoey's mutation worked through walls... so long as she had Ana to spot for her, at least. With how many mutants were in this facility she didn't want to zap entire areas indiscriminately.

That guy was crazy; Tank could see it in his eyes. He was an animal on two legs, and the Brotherhood was collectively off their rockers if they thought anything else. He was practically rabid.

"Freeze," he ordered, knowing full well that Sabertooth would not, unless it suited him to. He clenched his fists and prepared for a fight.

When Kate didn't get a response from Ana she got worried.  And though she tried again she also wasn't willing to leave Zoey and Barnell alone again.  "Ana's not answering me,  we need to get to the elevator, get upstairs, make sure she's alright." 

The younger girl was clearly close to panic as she looked rapidly back and forth between Barnell and Zoey and the hall to the elevator.  'sourceofcookies please are you okay?  Where are you!'  This time trying to push more strength into the communication, and rather than counting on the other girls stronger mind to pick up the slack for hearing her and responding actively tried to find and listen, trying to locate Ana's mind in relation to herself, something she now realizes she hasn't had practice doing before.



OOC:  Should I make any rolls for that?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:40, Thu 11 Mar 2021.

'Fine...busy...concentrating...' is all the response she can manage.

The Sabertooth growled, but did not make a move.  He was sizing them up.  Who looked the most confident?  Who was the greater threat?  The urge to rip their throats was strong; he didn't need a reason to attack them, but a reason not to. It was just a question of which one of them he would take down first...

He'd said Freeze, and Sabertooth had frozen? He wasn't attacking? That did not seem consistent with what little Tank had already gleaned regarding his temperament. He was just waiting for an excuse.

"So," he hissed, nudging Wax with his elbow, "Say something."

While Sabertooth was considering which one of them will serve as his appetizer, and which as his main course, an ever greater complication arose.  The door to the stairwell on the the topmost gallery floor opened up, and out marched a procession of Legion, all carrying assault rifles.  With their usual swagger, they took their position, aiming their guns at the group below even as more clones arrived and stood in front of each and every prison cell.

The unconscious prisoners would have to be carried out, and the Legion was selected for the mission precisely for this purpose - he had the man-power to carry them all out simultaneously, and empty the prison in a matter of minutes.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:07, Thu 11 Mar 2021.

Wax ignored the arrival of the Legion.  He was in the middle of a precarious situation; one wrong move and Sabertooth will be all over them.  He was sure he could survive the onslaught, but wasn't quite sure the X-Men would

"It is fine, Sabertooth" he talked slowly, and kept his voice down, in an attempt to soothe the beast "The X-Men are here to help us.  Right?" he nodded at Frank, seeking his approval

"We're here to release the prisoners," Tank said, skirting the issue of 'help the Brotherhood' by the narrowest of semantic margins. He took a breath, held it for a second, then added, "without killing anyone."

"It's a bit late for that," Serena added.

She had a silly demeanor, but her body language betrayed great self-assurance. Hands on her hips, one knee slightly bent, she was ready for action but not poised to spring. Without visible armor or weapons, and without the X-Men uniform, dressed only as a civilian in a silly T-shirt and skirt, she gave off the impression of being different and apart, a distinct officer in a lineup of soldiers.

"If they hadn't done all this already, well, getting these prisoners freed would be impossible."

She looks right at Sabertooth. Eye contact is a signal of aggression and challenge in wild animals, but in humans, and mutants, eye contact conveys attention and respect. These sorts of things are hardwired instincts. Serena isn't thinking about that, and she isn't aware of it, but that doesn't mean it's suddenly disappeared.

"Didja really hafta murder all of these people though?"

Kate urged Zoey and Barnell to get up, helping where she could.  Moments after she started she let out a relieved sigh.  "Oh thank goodness, Ana's alright, just um, busy?"  She doesn't sound certain that's the best description but it's all she has at the moment.  "But I still think we need to try and hurry if Barnell can be moved, before something bad has a chance to happen."

Sabertooth checked the blonde out, and took his time doing so. It was slowly becoming evident, the longer he looked at her, that he had different designs for her than he did for the others.   And if he did get his way, she’ll likely consider herself less fortunate than the ones who had their head bashed against the wall.

“No, Tank, we can’t do that” McCoy stepped forward

“What the government is doing in here is abominable.  But there are dangerous, evil men locked up in here.  If we release them, without oversight, the world as we know it will come to its end.  And even if they weren’t dangerous, taking matters into our own hands will reinforce the public opinion of us.  The government will then be able to pursue these polices openly, rather than clandestinely”
This message was last edited by the player at 17:44, Fri 12 Mar 2021.

"If we leave them here, we're complicit in their torture and murder," Tank objected. He wasn't even sure that they could stop the Brotherhood at this point, even if he wanted to take McCoy's side in this. Legion had control of the cells, and was about to let everyone out. Stopping him would be like trying to stop the tide from coming in. "If they need oversight, then we'll just have to provide it, somehow.

"Who's in here that's so damned dangerous, anyway?"

He kept one eye on Sabertooth while he was talking. He trusted that guy about as much as he'd trust a hungry shark.

McCoy shook his head

"The situation is too volatile.  We could easily end up with a hundred incidents like the one in Manhattan"

"If we leave them here now, the government will make sure none of them survives and blame us for their deaths.  It will be easy to spin it that way, and you can bet the public will gobble it up" what a mess this was!

'I'm now alone in the upper security room, but I can't figure anything out from here.'

Beast was worried about another Manhattan? That was the result of a powerful, untrained mutant. It was an accident, albeit a horrible one. It was the sort of doomsday scenario that all the worst anti-mutant agitators spouted in their hateful rhetoric. To hear that come from Beast was the worst kind of betrayal.

"Leaving them here is not an option," Tank said pointedly. "If you're so afraid of what they'll do without training, we'll just have to train them."

Serena showed her teeth. Technically, she was smiling, but there wasn't anything friendly about her expression. A recognition of threat presented and a refusal to back down. She was ignoring Frank the Tank and Dr. Blueberry and instead focusing on the direct threat, the big hairy dude who just murdered a bunch of people.

It was, she thought, rather like having a wolf by the ears.

“These prisoners were put in their cells not only because they couldn’t control their powers, but because they wouldn’t” McCoy only mentioned Manhattan because of the magnitude of  devastation and chaos that would ensue.  They ‘why’ would be different this time, but the end result would be far more severe.

"So we leave them here to be vivisected?"

Tank was about three seconds from changing sides. Either Beast said something new, or Tank was going to blow the roof of of the place by himself.

"Tank... I thought you were smarter than that."

Zoey apparently decided this was where her presence was most required, and just in time too.

"You want to train an entire prison facility's worth of mutants? I know only one place on Earth equipped to do something like that. They're the ones who sent us here to begin with. Furthermore, they're one of the few influential proponents of mutant rights. Doing so would implicate them in an attack on a government facility and risk undoing all the good that they have striven for. Furthermore, I'm not sure if you noticed but there's a goddamn war going on outside! Do you really want to risk turning public opinion against mutants at this critical time or, worse, risk letting these stupid cocksuckers (who'd, by the way, ally themselves with that fucking animal!) take them away to wreak havoc as an organization?"

She shakes her head.

"No. This is not the time for moral grandstanding, and our powers do not give us the right to force our philosophies. It's time to shut up and be good little soldier girls and boys, and put the one unambiguously bad person in this room down like the feral monster that he is."

She looks at the non-X-Man mutants in the room and refers to them by their given names properly for the first time. "Wax. Legion. Help us put Sabertooth down, and that compromise I suggested can still be on the table. We can say that we weren't able to stop you taking a few of the less evil mutants away. No one needs to know otherwise." She glared pointedly at Beast, the intent clear in her eyes: You better agree this too, blue boy.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:27, Sun 14 Mar 2021.

Wax looked sad.  And tired.  The entire mission was one huge clusterfuck.  The X-Men, who weren't supposed to be here.  Sabertooth going on a murderous rampage.  And it's not like he didn't have his own doubts about his mission, to begin with. But if they go back now, what will become of his brothers and sisters?  How could he possibly leave them behind?

"None of the inmates ever faced trial.  They were stripped of their basic human rights, captured, experimented upon.  Perhaps even murdered.    Let them all go free and have the government prove their guilt in a court of law.  We are only asking to be treated like any other citizen.  We can't let our freedoms be stripped away from us because it is convenient"

McCoy placed his hand over Wax's shoulder

"It wouldn’t be the first time, nor the last, that the US government misused its power" he said softly  "Consider, however, what predicament they are in.  There is no cell that can hold your friend here – a man that can bend steel pipes and instantaneously recover from any injury.   They lack the tools to put any of these inmates on trial without endangering millions.  But if you free them, they will lose the inclination to do so as well"
This message was last edited by the player at 10:38, Sun 14 Mar 2021.

"Grandstanding?!" Tank spun around at that word, turning red in the face. "It's not grandstanding to stand by your morals when the situation gets tough! That's when they matter the most! Anyone can be a moral person when the decisions are easy!

"Of course there's a war on. And we're sitting on the sidelines, preaching peace while the Brotherhood fights. They're way over the line here, but at least they tried something."

Tank lowered his voice, unclenched his fists, and took a deep breath.

"Obviously I'm the voice of dissent here," he continued as the color drained from his face. The others wanted to leave the prison intact, and the prisoners to their fate. He couldn't fight everyone, and he wasn't going to join the Brotherhood while Sabertooth was their idea of a star player. "But this is not over."

This was when Kate caught back up with Zoey and the others.  She could tell that there was a lot of tension in the air, arguing, anger, fear frustration.  Everything was obvious to her nose, if their postures hadn't also already been screaming it out.  While she thought she had gotten over the fight with Sabertooth, seeing him again brought it all back and she did her best not to cower while she moved to join her team.

'what's going on?' she mentally asked the four x-people already there, she knew it wouldn't be an easy or happy answer from reading their emotions but had missed too much to offer up any thoughts of her own, especially under the eyes of that monster.  At least they weren't fighting, yet.

"Oh, it absolutely isn't," Zoey replies with an anticipatory grin. "The senior X-Men are going to be grilled over a fire after this. If we don't like their answers... but that's then."

Zoey keeps an eye on Sabertooth. She's honestly surprised he hasn't gotten bored of all this talking and started throwing shit at them yet. He seems the sort that would.

Since the talking doesn't seem to be ending soon Zoey takes a step back and explains the situation as briefly as she can to Kate.

"Do you happen remember how the last public trial of a mutant went?" Zoey interjects at the appropriate point in Wax's speech, interrupting her own discussion with Kate to do so.

Kate herself wonders what the answer to Zoey's question is.  Following something like public trials or even news in general really hasn't been something she does.  Her own experiences generally enough to form an opinion on how things are, but this sounds like it would be more of an official government stance, that hopefully isn't just dissect them all.

'Guys? I'm alone in the control room with no idea what's going on down there. A bunch of Legion went down to free prisoners, leaving me here. But I don't know how to run the controls at all.'

«We're having kind of a philosophical standoff,» Tank replied, looking around the room. The philosophy part had actually come to an end, and now it was more of a 'Who attacks first?' situation, but there was no need to worry Ana. «Look for something that locks down the entire prison. Big red button, something like that.»

It was a prison. There had to be some sort of emergency switch/button, and it ought to be pretty clearly labeled. And while Tank was still tempted to look for the control that opened the entire prison, he'd agreed to side with Beast for the time being.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:24, Mon 15 Mar 2021.

Wax sighed.  Not because he needed to breath, but to express his weariness:
”That’s it.   It’s done” he shook his head, before raising it and looking up above him
”Legion! This was supposed to be a clean, bloodless operation.  We’ve already have enough to atone for.  Lets not add to it the injury or death of our fellow mutants”

A cacophony of voices answered in reply from the galleries.  Some of the Legion agreed wholeheartedly with Wax, lowering their rifles, and standing down.  Others, however, were not as cooperative.  Sure, they didn’t have any reason to harm the X-Men, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t proceed and free the prisoners, right?   Right!   Each of the Legion was carrying a smart card keyed to the cells’ electronic locks, and at least half of them used these keys now, to open the doors.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:54, Mon 15 Mar 2021.

”No, Legion! Damn it!” Wax waved his fist in the air, too distracted to notice the heavy, clawed fist coming in from the right until it made contact with his cheek.

Sabertooth just about had enough of all the talking, and his first target was Wax, the ‘traitor’ to the cause.   In a fit of animalistic rage, he pounced on top of the pale man, clawing at his exposed flesh, tearing it up, and flinging chunks of it away with his supernatural strength.  Had Wax been made of flesh and blood, it could have made for a very gory scene. As it happens, his body was composed of some malleable, gooey white substance, without all those troublesome internal organs, blood, and nerve endings.  And so, he was able to fight back even after half his face has gone missing.  Still on the floor, he grabbed Sabertooth’s hands with his, trying to prevent the animal from tearing the rest of him up.

”You crazy fuck! Get off me!!!”

Tank had begun to like Wax, or at least to respect him. Moreover, now that Sabertooth was back to going nuts on them, it was probably better to help while Wax was still capable of fighting back, rather than wait until he was incapacitated. So Tank took a breath and struck at Sabertooth with one of his piledriver fists.

This was probably not going to go well, but it needed to be done.

Prowess d8
Brains Plus Brawn d8
Superhuman Strength d10
Combat Expert d8

Frank Guberman rolled 1,8,9,1 using d8,d8,d10,d8 ((1,8,9,1)).

Total: 17
Effect: d4 (default)
2 Opportunities
+2 PP = 3 total

Kate was still young, and despite her experiences wanted to do the 'right' thing.  Which in this case seemed to her to be obvious.  Free the innocent mutants and leave the dangerous ones.  They could just have Ana and her check each one and then let out the good ones.  It was a perfect plan.  One without any possibility of complication or objection.  At least in her head.  Sadly she had just finished figuring it out when everything went to hell.

"Hey, I know, we can just let out the innocent ones..." but her soft voice was lost in the cacophony as Legion's response to Wax, and before she could try again, louder, the fight was on.  She shivered as she saw Sabertooth tearing into Wax, but wasn't brave enough to step in like Tank, so found herself watching, frozen, unsure what to do.

"... Welp! So much for that!" Zoey's thoughts crash and tumble over themselves as the situation changes in then span of a heartbeat. Gotta take care of Sabertooth! one part of her says. Gotta take care of Legion, he has guns! went another. Some of them not attacking, some of them are? How to distinguish between?! No time to figure it out, kill ALL the clone boys! AAAAAA!

And it would be killing. If anyone deserved the lethal option, it was Sabertooth. Time to be Heartbreak, she thinks to herself as she orders the cells in their hearts to activate the apoptosis enzyme and die. She didn't know what sorts of powers the murderbeast had other than super strength and... extensible bones, from the looks of it? Whatever!

Some distant part of her is happy she hadn't tried to fight Wax; she isn't sure what she'd do with a biology like his and didn't relish trying to figure it out in the middle of a fight. Come to think of it, Random was pretty weird as well. She'd have to redouble her swordsmanship when she got back to the mansion.

---

Zoey Fujino rolled 1d10+1d4+1d10+1d8+1d6+1d6+1d6 with rolls of 8,4,1,4,3,2,5.  Let the gods sort 'em out!

Attacking Sabertooth and the Legions with good old-fashioned murder. 13 result (8 and 5), d8 for Sabertooth, 2d6 and d4 left over for the Broken Legion. One opportunity and one distinction penalty, so back up to two PP! Sad days when one of the highest dice in the pool comes up 1. =(

Ana Sofía replies to Frank, 'Already tried that. Couldn't figure it out even after trying to search Legion's mind for how... Barnell!' Her communication ends abruptly.

Sailor Moon had won her staring contest with Sabertooth. Nobody out-willpower's the moon princess! Or something like that. She had chosen not to weigh in on the debating, but one does not choose to stand on the sidelines of a battle when one is in the middle of the battlefield.

"Wildcat!" She pointed forcefully at Kate, then up the stairs. "Go up to the main office and help Nymph!"

She clapped her hands together and spread them again, palms out. Electricity sparked and crackled between her hands, as if she was pulling it out of the air.

"Jupiter Crash!"

Then she clapped again, index fingers together and extended, pointing at Sabertooth. A bolt of lightning shot through the room at the speed of light, leaving a blinding flash. It made less noise than typical thunder, but it was just as shocking as the original.

Electricity would succeed where kinetic force did not! Assuming kinetic force didn't succeed.

Woo baby that was a roll!

02:53, Today: Serena rolled 25 using 1d10+1d10+1d6+1d8 with rolls of 8,10,2,5.  Sailor Scout powers activate.

1d10 Prowess
1d10 Sufficiently Advanced Mutations
1d6 Combat Novice
1d8 Person of Mass Destruction

Total 18
Effect d8

Sabretooth had no intention of finding out precisely how strong Tank was.  But instead of getting out of the way he charged directly at him, and closed the distance before the punch could gather any momentum.   Zoey’s tempering with his heartrate, and particularly Serena’s lightning caused him to growl in pain, but only served to enrage the beast even further as it wrapped its hands around Frank’s throat.  He wasn’t trying to chock him – that would take too long.  Instead, his sharp claws went straight for the jugular, as he bent forward to bite Tank’s ear off.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Sabretooth rolled 8,8,10,5 using 1d10,1d8,1d10,1d8 with rolls of 8,8,10,5.  Sabretooth reaction to Frank.
Prowess 1d10
Savage 1d8
Enhanced Reflexes 1d8
Combat Master 1d10
Total = 18, effect = 1d10. Using a doom pool die to activate Frank’s opportunity and give Sabretooth a ‘Faster than Tank’ asset at 1d10, to be used against future attacks.

Sabretooth rolled 3,5,1,4 using 1d10,1d8,1d10,1d8 with rolls of 3,5,1,4.  Sabretooth reaction to Serena (same dice pool).  Total = 9 vs attack of 18.  Effect die increased to 1d10.  Sabretooth takes 1d10 physical stress.

Sabretooth rolled 4,7,6,1 using 1d10,1d10,1d12,1d8 with rolls of 4,7,6,1.  Sabretooth reaction to Zoe  (discounting the 1d12, as he has no power to help defend).  Total = 11, vs attack of 13.  Sabretooth takes 1d8 physical stress, total of 1d12.

......aaaand, spend a die from the doom pool to remove all stress (godlike regeneration).


Sabretooth attack vs Frank:

Prowess 1d10, Savage 1d8, Supernatural Strength 1d10, Combat Master 1d10 (stepped down to 1d8 because of dangerous).  Sabretooth rolled 6,10,7,8 using 1d10,1d10,1d8,1d8 with rolls of 6,10,7,8.  Sabretooth attack vs Frank.  Total = 18, effect = 1d12 (1d10 stepped up due to dangerous).

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This message was last edited by the player at 13:24, Wed 17 Mar 2021.