The True Creed of Humanity

Summary:
July 9, 2014: Graydon Creed and Simon Trask continue their rabble-rousing, with a set-up confrontation with 'The Brotherhood'

New York City - Manhattan - Battery Park

Battery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for the artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years to protect the settlement behind them. At the north end of the park is Castle Clinton, the often repurposed last remnant of the defensive works which inspired the name of the park, the former fireboat station Pier A and Hope Garden, a memorial to AIDS victims. At the other end of the park is Battery Gardens restaurant, next to the United States Coast Guard Battery Building. Along the waterfront, Statue Cruises offers ferries to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The park is also the site of the East Coast Memorial which commemorates U.S. servicemen who died in coastal waters of the western Atlantic Ocean during World War II, and several other memorials.


Characters

NPCs

  • Real Brotherhood: Avalanche, Pyro
  • Fake Brotherhood: "Blade Butcher Bitch", "Drone Man", "Escape Clause" - true codenames unrevealed.
  • SRD: Backblast
  • FoH - Graydon Creed, Simon Trask
  • Unfortunate Bystanders, and Bigoted Mob
  • Murderers of Music - Beacon High School Marching Band (not their fault)

Mood Music:
Not As Bad As Beacon High School


It has been a while since Graydon Creed has made his presence known to the public at large since the events back in March where the St.Regis Hotel in NYC had several of it's upper floors blown apart by suicide bombers, anti-mutant extremists who called themselves the Friends of Humanity. Allegedly the man, the politician himself was the mastermind behind the attack - since then Creed has kept a relatively low profile, kept his image clear of anything involving mutants (aside from the occasional interview or slur).

Once again the inspiration behind the Church of Humanity (nothing to do with Auguste Comte's Religion of Humanity or it's positivist offshoots) is making a show at an awards ceremony at Battery Park for the SRD where he will be speaking on behalf of Humanity. It's been rumored the Brotherhood itself plans on making a show as well to avenge themselves upon Graydon Creed and his supporters. This is where the X-Men and those associated come in.

A simple telepathic message from Xavier himself, "I need those of you there who can show and compose themselves to please do so and monitor the events. Make sure if our wayward brethren make their presence known we can find a way to detour them from anything rash. This is an extremely important and delicate matter. Do only what is necessary, think beyond yourselves, think of the entire mutant community. I am counting on all of you."

It's a warm day, sunny and in the higher ranges of humidity. The SRD is here in show more so than force but their numbers (those off duty) are rather high in count as is the size of the crowd. Armored vehicles are situated to either side of the set up stage and tape has been drawn up to keep the crowds back behind the seated SRD families, personnel and supporters. Those without the invite are not allowed beyond it. Press of course are excluded. At this moment in time no one stands up speaking; it's a band playing, one of the local High School's classes with their loud beating of drums, trumpets, wind instruments and other assorted tools of obnoxious sound-making. So far it looks pleasant but who can say how long that will last. It never does.

~

Jamie Madrox whines. And bitches. And moans as well. This is exactly the sort of thing he's excellent at, crowd control and all that noise, but it's also exactly the sort of crap he does not in any way shape or form enjoy doing. He was in the middle of something important dammit! Doesn't the Prof realize that with the release of the Witcher 3 on the horizon, Jamie must play back through the Witcher 2 so as to get all his story straight and to keep fresh in his mind the bad-assery that is Garalt of Rivia?! Of course he doesn't.

Cause he's old. And bald. Bald people never understand fun stuff, they're always more worried about getting their hair back, or possibly jealous of the hair of others. And speaking of hair, this stupid suit always gives him Costume Hat Hair when he takes it off!! He needs to find Reed and get him to make it somehow less… head-condomy. Oh look. They're there. If he's lucky he won't have to put the head condom on at all and he can just walk around blending in! Fingers crossed.

~

Jacky Winters, currently out of class and not at work since he did overtime over the weekend, is available to attend. He's a rather average looking young man, today, with no 'club kid sparkle' and he's wearing casual street attire, like anyone who might have just shown to find out what the fuss is. So far, it looks like it isn't anything, really. And that band is … wow. Band-aid needed.

~

Cal gathered some people who were willing (or not) and able to go play bodyguard for the bigots. It will probably be uneventful so it's a good training exercise. But something could happen so their abilities will be useful. And his ace in the hole, of course, is Nancy. She has special instructions: keep the head bigot alive. If she seems any hostile mutants, get between them and Creed. And in general, keep her field at max. She even has a taser this time.

~

Magneto is not the reason behind those rumors of Brotherhood involvement. He told no one he would be here. In fact, he was pondering the wisdom of his presence here until this very morning. But soldiers need to know the face of the enemy. He is just going to watch. That is the plan.

So he changed his combat boots and cargo pants for a well-tailored grey outfit, with matching shoes. And a hat, mostly for the sun. The old man is currently studying the deployment of the SRD. Because they are also the enemy, even if they don't know it yet.

~

Nancy hadn't had any sugar in so long that she felt that one little …. okay three of her big lollipops wouldn't hurt. And with her blood sugar up to her high normal, Nancy is herself. She'll go back on her diet tomorrow, she tells herself, not really realizing the change that has been happening to her behavior or personality lately. She nods her head to Cal, glad she's been practicing her power. Shrinking it has been her focus, true, but not her exclusive focus. She sits herself in the audience, as close to the stage as possible, leather and buckles and black, sucking on a lolly and letting her field 'all hang out', as it were.

~

After several minutes of prolonged torture the band quiets down. The bleating noises and out of sync bangs to chimes filtering away to nothing. A man steps out, well-built and middle aged with a charming smile and bright yet dark shadowed eyes; a suit of grey worn on one collar the American flag the opposite a symbol representing the FoH. He is cheering as he walks, hand's clapping together over and over until he reaches the podium and its microphone. He's easily recognized as Graydon Creed.

"Lets give it up for the Beacon High School marching band and their support for our magnificent Special Response Division."

Creed's hands lift up above his head waving everyone in to applause.

"Just wonderful, absolutely wonderful."

Remy LeBeau aka Gambit stands not far away from Calvin, his usual calm demeanor about him with shades over his black-to-red eyes and a cigarette hanging out of his lips, smoke tendrils licking towards the blue sky above. His right arm in a sling.

"Dis guy again. Every time he shows his ugly face we get spells o' trouble." The Cajun is here because well - he doesn't have many friends and he's an on-and-off-again ally of the X-Men. Plus he likes to think Calvin is his pal.

There isn't such a thing as scanners but several of the well-equipped SWAT level geared SRD soldiers are looking rather vigilante in their visual sweeps of the crowd, the weapons they carry loaded with riot suppression rounds but you can be sure they each come armed with lethal loaded magazines should they need to utilize them.

One by one the high school band begins to filter off stage.

~

Jamie Madrox stands next to Remy, his arm sporting a fancy FoH armband which he's currently securing with a bit of velcro.

"Hey, did you get yourself a fancy piece of swag yet? They have a table of them over there, some great pamphlets too," he says conversationally to Remy.

"Did you know Mutants were responsible for AIDS and homosexuality? Me either. Says so right there though."

He finishes securing the arm band and unfolds the pamphlet, "Damn. Apparently most of them are affiliated with Islamic extremeist groups or Socialist European nations. Those rotten mutant bastards are into everything evil!"

His tone sounds sincere enough, but anyone that knows him a little can see the satire of his acting.

"Check it out," he holds the pamphlet up so Remy can see, "mutant civil rights is a lie, says so, right there. It's a masterful plan to weed out humanity."

~

Jacky is nowhere near those tables. He's wandered over to a small crowd (maybe five or six at the moment) which has "No Hate" and "Mutants Are Humans" signs, and is generally looking like flower children who fell through the eighties and nineties, bouncing off every fashion fad in the way, to land here. They are currently being quiet, just waving their signs. The FoH people may not have noticed them yet. Jacky's just looking curiously at them, so far.

~

"He's a lightning rod," Cal agrees to Remy. "Probably intentionally so but too smart to do anything that leads directly back to him."

He's not watching Creed. Nor listening to him. He's heard the tirade of party line here and in other realities. It doesn't change. Besides, if he really listened to it, he might be tempted to shut the man up himself and that would be bad. Instead, he's watching the crowd for suspicious behavior or familiar faces.

"Anti-mutant, anti-gay and anti-socialist? I'm so proud. I'm at the top of his list. All he needs is some White Power and he'll corner the market on hate."

« Jacky. No changing opinions, » he cautions. « But if you need to bend some ethical rules to keep people alive, especially ours or the bigot, do it. » Rules have to bend, though not break, to the realities of the situation after all. And then he does spot a familiar face, albeit it one he's not seen in years.

"Damn. I hope times do not get interesting."

~

Magneto is having a lot of fun with the pamphlets too. Looks like the current world crisis is also because of the mutants, they sabotaged the banks. Yes, all very amusing. He is not smiling, though, he looks tense. All in all, the FoH setup reminds him to his childhood in Germany, and that is never a good thing.

He has become better at controlling his rage in the last few years. But coming here was a mistake. Skimming over the pamphlets was a mistake (he knew what they would say already). Listening to Creed is a mistake. But he is going to listen anyway. Maybe he is feeling masochistic, or maybe he is building up the anger to murder someone.

~

Nancy shakes her head at the band. Sloppy, just sloppy. She should have brought her cello just to show them all up. Clearly, these kids aren't from her high school, because they would never have humiliated the concept of music like these kids did. She rolls her eyes, the little stick from her candy swinging back and forth between her lips.

She sighs as she watches the spectacle. Until a few months ago, she would have totally been on board with this baloney. She's learned a lot since then, about herself and the world around her. And for the better, not that she'd ever admit it one way or the other. Her arms are crossed over her chest, she's not applauding for the band cause, well, they don't deserve it. Don't encourage them for butchering … was that Beethoven? She couldn't even tell.

Idly, she wonders just how big her field is when she's pushing it like this. She grows thoughtful, not really seeming to be paying attention to Creed as she feels out her own power. Oooh! Double her usual size! Bitchin!

~

"What a load of shit," says an Australian accent. The source standing not far from Jacky Winters and that small crowd of peaceful anti-haters. Next to him a swarthy skinned man with curly hair stands, arms folded across a broad chest.

"Y'say D? We light 'em up?"

His companion responds with a simple, "No. There's too many."

To those who would recognize such individuals these two would be avid Brotherhood members, Avalanche and Pyro. Yet they don't seem geared for combat, no suits, no cables, no heavy coats hiding bulky outfits, nothing. Casual wear jeans and a sweater on Avalanche, shorts and a T-Shirt that reads 'The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves' on Pyro. For the most part these two seem to be keeping to themselves.

"Before I begin with the awards I'd like to introduce all of you to a dear friend of mine, now, many of you may recognize him from his TV series The Last Stand but it's my undue pleasure to welcome Simon Trask to the stage, Simon if you'd come on out and say hello to the fine citizens of the Greatest City on Earth!"

Creed seems to be eating this up and is acting more like a game show host than a politician. A man steps out, white beard, short cropped hair and sparkling eyes that seem pinched in a forever scowl. His hand lifted up in the air waving back and forth as though he is riding in a car with Roosevelt himself.

~

Back in the crowd Remy grins sidelong at Jamie, "Dis count as swag?"

His fingers pull a watches and a wallet out of his arm brace.

"I tink, homme, I may go see the doctor after dis here happy gathering. Charles sure picks the good parties." The rogue's accent makes 'Charles' come out as Sharls.

"Dom you see that old guy over there?" asks Pyro, nodding towards Magneto's direction.

"Can't be, you think it's him eh? Nah. Wouldn't be."

Avalanche follows the nod but doesn't see what his companion is seeing and just gives another of those bored shrugs.

"Too bad we don't have more of us here. This would be a blast."

Nancy herself has the whole face in the crowd thing going right now. Not even the SRD guardsmen are giving her any attention.

~

Jamie Madrox continues to flip through the pamphlet.

"Ooo. They have a number to call if you think your neighbor is a mutant, and some helpful tips on how to guard yourself against becoming a mutant," he says with a slow nod. "Look Remy, we should pray more, and attend…" he squints to read, "religious or philosophical services of your choice, so long as they place the appropriate amount of emphasis on Humanity above other species."

He blinks.

"Well that was nicely nondenominational, doncha think?"

He goes back to scouring the pamphlet as if curious what other helpful tips could be given.

"Vaccines can cause mutation… but don't worry, the government is working on an anti-mutant vaccine… I'm confused. Does that mean we're supposed to take it… or not?"

~

Jacky nods faintly at Cal's telepathic caution, not that he planned to do any bending of rules. He is, however, wondering if these peacenik guys might be capable of singing. Because if things go down, a little peace chant might just turn out to be useful. Besides, something must be done to make up for that band. The poor kids, they had no choice but to come, and clearly they never had a chance to rehearse, but they were still a bit like an ice-pick in the heart of music.

The menace from the two Brotherhood splinters catches his attention though, and he thinks, «Cal, if you hear me, there's a couple guys here…»

~

Cal glances over at Remy and sighs.

"You realize, everyone you stole from is going to blame it on mutants and if they weren't already leaning in that direction, you helped them along."

Shaking his head, he reaches up to scratch his ear and activate the mic everyone's equipped with. Telepathy is better but Nancy can't hear it.

"Stay sharp, people. There's at least one possible threat here."

He wanders over to the threat in question and turns back to watch the stage, once he's standing next to Magneto.

"We've never met in this reality but I wonder if the Professor's ever mentioned me. I'm Cal. And I've fought next to another you on another Earth."

He's certainly told the Prfoessor about Magneto the savior of meta-humans and the evil Professor that he was forced to kill.

« I hear you, Jacky. Which ones? Picture them in your mind. »

~

Magneto picks the Australian accent and look back. Pyro and Avalanche, but not geared for war. Before he can move to meet them, Cal comes and makes a rather odd comment. It earns him a sharp glance.

"Indeed?" There is some disbelief in Magneto's voice. "I am afraid I don't know about you, Cal. Are you one of his new students? Ah… and I imagine you are not alone. What brings you to this fine display of humanity at his most hateful and stupid?"

~

Nancy fakes a smile to the person sitting next to her who is offering her a pamphlet. Yeah sure, whatever. She grabs the pamphlet, not making any real effort to be nice, and starts to go over it. Yadda yadda yadda, homosexuality. Yackity Smackity World Domination. Blah blah blah. Global Warming. What? How does that even work? She's pretty sure the science in that is not based on, you know, science. Mind you, what would she know. She's not an egghead. That's a question for her favourite nerds, Bobby and Hank. Let them hash it out.

She sighs, listening to the politician. Yeah, she knows that if everything goes well, she will have absolutely nothing to do and be bored as hell. Is it bad she is hoping that it doesn't all go well? Just a little bit of action? Cause she's got this tazer in her backpack that is sitting between her legs and it would be kinda cool to use it. She scratches behind her ear, muttering to herself. "No worries. Got schmuck-face here all nice and covered in my blanket of mutant shame."

~

"Oh no, only mutants are pickpockets. I only stole from de fat healthy lookin' ones." Gambit's fast hands needed a work out anyways and there are more than enough wealthy hams here. Besides he feels it's his own form of due justice. Plus, he has a problem.

"Lets go pray, mon ami, I see a buffet over dat way," he mumbles to Jamie as they walk, grumbling as he passes by several he'd stolen from only to deposit his pilferings back in to their pockets on the way. Some, not all.

"I hope de telepaths can hear my thoughts right now." Yosemite Sam style cursing is all they would pick up.

"It is him, fuck me!"

Pyro exclaims and steps forward to actually close the distance between himself and Magneto when Calvin becomes a large wall in the way.

"Move it you, git!"

Avalanche sighs heavily and follows Pyro brushing past Jacky on his way (rudely so as well).

"Well hello there gorgeous." A man's voice pipes up near Nancy; the man himself is wearing an SRD outfit only the uniforms been stripped down to a vest that shows off muscular arms, a smooth shaven chest and dog tags that read 'Edward Menninger'

"Why you sittin' all by yourself? Pretty lady like you should have a friend to watch such a fun little… display of wretchedness unless you're one of these kooks who support this kinda shameless trash. If so… no speaky English."

The Freddy Mercury good looks stretch themselves in to a smile.

Back on stage, "As Mr.Creed, my political colleague has stated I am the host of Last Stand, Simon Trask and a devote servant of our one and only Lord. Through him… " The speech begins!

~

Jamie Madrox sighs softly without looking up from his pamphlet, "This is just depressing."

"Heads up Cal, two incoming." Jamie says, only this voice doesn't come from the one reading the pamphlet. You know the great thing about being Jamie? One never has to worry who's got your back. In this case it's 5 other Jamie's at varying intervals around the ralley set up with high powered binoculars scopeing out the crowd and all it's glory from every possible direction.

"Good catch me." Jamie mumbles into his mic, "Hey guys, lookie here, the powerful Pro-Mutant lobby is raising taxes to pay for whats-his-faces new health care act."

His brow crinckles and he looks up to eye Remy, "When did we get a powerful pro-Mutant lobby? That sounds like the sort of thing that should come with a newsletter or an email or something."

He pauses, considers, then nods, "At least a tweet, right? @Mutantpower says Gimme all your monies sos we can erradicate human race kthxbai. #Forrealz."

Jamie nods, "You can play around with the wording, but you get the drift. I'm just sayin'…"

~

Jacky forms a clear image of Avalanche and Pyro, though by now, Cal might've gotten it by following Magneto's line of sight. He catches one of the blown pamphlets underfoot — they're letting them become part of the litter ecosystem, apparently - and glances at the front.

Mutants: Threat or Menace. How mutant mind-control causes Satanism and Masturbation. The truth about Chupacabra, the mutant from south of the border.

He cracks up laughing, which probably gets him a few dirty looks. He even lets Pyro shove against him, although he doesn't seem to be shoved very far. .

~

"Student? No. Two years in this reality, many years in another," Cal answers and glances over at Magneto a moment in order to smile before he looks back to Creed. "I'd be happy to talk to you at length sometime if you'd like. It would interesting. As for this…"

He shrugs.

"We're just here to make sure nothing unfortunate happens."

Jacky's image just confirms what he already guessed and he glances at Pyro.

"I don't think so. But feel free to start something with all the cops here."

~

No. No. Trask is going to mix religion with racism. That is sure to drive him to public murder. So Magneto turns to leave.

"Those policemen wouldn't be much of a threat," he comments to Cal before leaving. "But I did not come here to fight, just to see them. I have seen enough."

Pyro and Avalanche get a nod of acknowledge and a brief "not now" as he passes by them.

~

Brushing her hair over her ear to hide the comm device, Nancy gets distracted. Ooooh! Big muscly arms, quirky sense of humor, a smile that implies oh so much. She pats the empty chair beside her, not hiding the fact that she's giving him the once over.

"Maybe I was just waiting for a big, strong man in uniform like yourself to come and keep me company." She starts playing with her lollipop, being more then a little suggestive. "So, do you have a name?"

Distracted from keeping her field to its maximum, it shrinks back down to its normal size of 10 feet around her. Of course, with her sitting in the front row, Creed is still *sometimes* in her field.

~

"We just wanna talk," Pyro says louder, trying to get Magneto's attention as his hands press to Calvin's shoulders and he tries to shove him out of the way though he doesn't budge Cal instead pressing backwards to thump in to Avalanche's chest.

"Nah, he's getting away c'mon. Fuck sakes, man, you know who that was?"

"John. He is right, too many MRD here," Avalanche says, MRD being a slang for NYC regions SRD. "We'd get arrested. Just let him go… we seen him, that is all we needed."

Pyro 'St.John' glares daggers up at Calvin only to turn his head and spit, "I'll fry you I ever see you again."

Jamie and Remy relocate themselves to the buffet table.

"Why we set up in New York anyway? Ya tink Metropolis be a better idea, non? I hear dey like us there," Gambit carries on, the two making a perfect jesting pair on their way.

"You can call me whatever you like but most people just call me Eddie. What about you angel-face?" The SRD soldier's smile grows larger; his moustache is quite magnificent. It's very Tom Sellek. A crackle sound can be heard just briefly and his head cants while he is trying to look Nancy in the eyes.

"What? No we didn't authorize any press drones. They even have those? That is news to me. Where?"

Ed smiles apologetically at Nancy and holds up his hand, "Excuse me if you would." His hand circles up in the air and he motions towards the stage waving two fingers. Upon command the three closest SRD soldiers spread outwards pressing the crowd behind the tape further back.

Something is clearly up.

It's from his vantage first that Jacky has a visual sign of what may be up, over near that crowd of peace-loving protesters he'll see what looks like a visual distortion on the horizon, a blur of red and blue that is incoming fast, too fast and it's ground based.

The speech as it is ongoing suddenly ends as a sound escapes several on stage. Away over the waterfront about three black to silver orbs can be seen hovering through the air, racing towards the gathering, opposite the disturbance Jacky should be seeing.

~

"Watch out!" Jacky yells, "Get down, something's coming!" He doesn't put much push behind it because he doesn't really have time to form one, though it should catch the attention of the people close enough to hear it. He's more trying to get himself and the others out of the path of whatever that incoming thing is.

~

Jamie Madrox chuckles at Remy's words, "They like us there because we're not there."

Jamie points out, "kinda like the way most people like their mother-in-law when their wife is around… until she shows up."

He shrugs, "Besides, some of us don't have the right kind of costume for Metropolis."

He looks over at Remy, "Hey… did you steal my coat?" he asks, realizing for the first time the pair of them are wearing the same damned trench coat.

"Dude. This has been my look since I was like fourteen," he glares, "you get a head condom on your costume and I'm going to beat fourteen colors of pain outa you."

He mock threatens, shaking a fist in Remy's face, "seriously, Pow Alice! Right to th-" he stops talking, his head tilting to the side.

"Nancy's field is down, I'm in communication with me again," he says suddenly. Jamie, the instant 'Nancy's being bad' alarm. Jamie takes a moment to think, then sighs heavily.

"Gambie baby, we got incoming and out going. Cal!" he calls into his mic, "I'm going to tail Captain Persecution, on my way after him I'll leave some Crowd Control, try to keep things from getting out of hand. They'll be on mic if you need them."

He glares at Remy again, picking up right where he left off as if he'd never been distracted, "moon!"

A punch into the air as if he were socking Remy to said planetary body, and then he's off, jogging after Mags and punching his fist into his own hand as he goes, leaving a small trail of Jamie's in his wake that are doing the same thing, multiplying quietly but quickly…

~

"I didn't mean you," Cal tells Magneto as he walks away then looks back to Pyro.

"No, you'll try to. And if he wanted to talk to you, he'd have done so. Though I can understand not wanting to."

He nods to the big guy then walks over to join Remy and Jamie at the buffet.

"Keep an eye on the two I was just with but they probably won't do anything. The small one is a hot head though," he cautions the others over the radio frequency. But at Jamie's warning, he looks for himself and adds, "Try not to reveal yourselves if you can help it but make sure no one gets hurt."

Double timing to the perimeter where, hopefully, few people if any are watching - especially the cops - he BLINKs out to the waterfront where he can do something about the three… whatever they are, without revealing himself to witnesses and cameras. Telekinesis is nicely unobtrusive but there's an optic blast chaser if the former isn't enough.

~

"Most people call me pain in the ass. You get to call me whatever gets me your phone number." Not that she'd actually call it. Let's face it, Nan loves to flirt but not so big on the follow through. The moustache is sorta cute, in a huge caterpillar died on his face sorta way. Be cuter if it was a blue moustache. Mmmm. Blue. And that's when Nancy comes back to her senses. She's here to work.

Leaning on the back of her chair, facing the SRD officer known as Eddie, Nan uses this to touch the comm behind her ear.

"Press drones?" she says, faking interest. She looks upwards. "Where?"

Now that she's thinking about it again, her field is back to full. She's likely gonna catch hell for that later. Cal sees all. Especially hot guys in uniform. Or out of uniform.

"Sorry 'bout that. I'm back."

All said while batting her eyes at Eddie.

~

Pyro's lips curl back and any retort is drowned out by the crowds noises and a loudspeaker: "Please everyone remain calm and begin to withdraw from the grounds. Remain calm."

Avalanche gives his own respectful nod while taking Pyro by the shoulder, "C'mon, lets go to the stage maybe we can use this to our advantage."

The men on stage stand there looking befuddled and speaking low to one another, Simon Trask steps back as Creed moves forth, "You all heard the officers, please, make a timely exit away from the stage. We're getting a report mutant terrorists known as the Brotherhood may be present and they are extremely hostile. Stay close to your SRD protectors and move quickly and calmly away from the park! This is not a hoax or theatrics, this is real!"

"Kind of farm boy wears trenchcoats?" Remy laughs at Jamie trying to picture it.

"Head condom ain't my style. Your punch be no worse den a mosquito bite. Bring it, mon ami!" A mock dodge is executed before Gambit's head is on a swivel, "Uh oh."

That slinged-up arm tucking closer to his body, the injury a reminder on his tangling with the Yakuza.

"'Fraid I won't be much help dis round," he says out loud, more to Calvin than anyone else before the man teleports out of speaking range.

"Hold that thought, beautiful."

Eddie steps away from Nancy and begins to speak more clearly in to his headset, a hand waving the woman up and towards the forming armed escort. "This is Backblast on all channels, your priority is the civilians, get them out of here. Do not engage unless necessary, carefull-" he is cut off as that red and blue distortion Jacky had picked out almost seems to materialize amidst those protesters.

What follows is something out of a horror movie, limbs dice off and throats are lashed as the mystery 'blur' slows down long enough in it's attack to become recognizable as a figure. A woman in a skin tight suit with brunette hair and bladed forearm coverings. A smiling sadist who just viciously assaulted innocent people.

What follows is screams of terror.

Calvin finds himself facing down three drones that whir about in the air, they look like something straight out of Star Wars and even come equipped with forward pointing lasers. Once he is in range they all synchronized begin to open fire on him. These are not SRD issue nor any thing anyone else around these parts is known to have access to.

"It's the mutants!" someone screams. A chrous of accusations are thrown out, all of them of course being directed at who you'd expected. Mutants and the Brotherhood.

"Bullocks, this ain't us." Pyro whispers, his own surprise evident in his voice as Avalanche steers him towards the stage, Trask and Creed.

~

Jacky's gone half-diamond just before the attack, and he's not even going to try to hold back — «"STOP! YOU DON'T WANT TO HURT ANYONE!"» he yells at the woman, psy-pushing as hard as he can. He's also got deep scratches along his arm where she's sliced, but he hasn't noticed that quite yet.

~

Hopefully, Cal's telekinetic field will stop the blasts but he never relies on just one thing. He doesn't need to, and is transforming to metal even as he throws up the forcefield. Screw not revealing himself, the drones took that option out of his hands. Without a visor, his optic blasts are always full strength and wide field and that's what he gives the drones.

~

Nancy arches a brow. 'Backblast,' she mouths up at Eddie, clearly amused. Mind you, she's one to talk, not that she ever uses her code name. Nancy rises to her feet, looking around as the mayhem starts to rise. Her job was to keep Creed safe, so she does her best to make it look as though she is being all calm and collected as she slips back behind the stage.

Remembering how her anger made her field more potent, she tries to think of something that upsets her. Oh yeah, her apartment got blown up this week. Why did it take this long for her to realize and care about that? Well, dammit! That was where she kept her stuff! Genuinely mad now, Nancy's field her full volume, she does what she can to keep Creed in her bubble.

~

Crowd control? The SRD is in need of assistance? Jamie Madrox is at hand and he's probably the best help one could hope for in a scenario like this Jamie Prime's departure still leaves behind an army of hims that begin to form fleshy barricades around the people still present, shoving and pressing them towards the SRD safety line.

Mimic's TK Shield easily deflects the blast as the drones are then neatly vaporized by the optic blast a successive pop-explode taking care of the trio. From where he is now he can see a man in a blue and yellow costume with an optical visor of his own (it covers one eye) the lone figure flails around clutching at his face as those drones erupt. Feedback from the connection.

That woman who just diced a handful of bystanders and cut in to Jacky stops on a dime, standing there with her mouth agape as if she just lost a really good Scrabble word. Telepathic command apparently working wonders.

Pyro's hands lift up and he launches his hand forward and… nothing happens.

"Oh what the fuck?" he says, his hand flailing at the air again as he aims it at Creed and Trask.

"Bloody hell!"

"What?" Avalanche barks, only to lift both of his fingers up curled in and tossing them like he's out of a DBZ cartoon towards the same duo Pyro just tried to kill with imaginery fire. Once again, nothing. Panic overcomes both of the 'actual' Brotherhood members.

"What… who…"

Nancy. But they have no clue and now they look retarded as they wave their hands frantically at the stage like they're cosplay wizards casting fictional spells on the Friends of Humanity leaders. Someone hand them a tennis ball so they can yell lightning bolt at least.

Backblast is still shouting commands into the headset before he reaches out and grabs Nancy's arm, "Come on, lovely, we have to get you out of here. It isn't safe. Fall in line with everyone else and when this clears up I'll take you to the best restaurant this side of the Hudson." He is genuinely trying to save her ass but in the process he's also unwittingly causing her a distraction from use of her powers in saving the Friends of Humanity figureheads from the deadly duo over yonder.

Gambit meanwhile is tossing a child over the tape towards one of the SRD soldiers who is looking for something to shoot at, "Take the kid! Get it to cover." Ouch ouch, the arm, ouch, youngster was heavier than he expected.

~

Jacky didn't quite expect that to work, but now, «"You're very tired. Go to sleep"» he orders the bladed woman, adrenaline and the itchy painful sensation of dying people near him lending force to his telepathy. He begins to notice that she cut his arm, and shifts it entirely to diamond, still flexible. He can't go solid yet, not here.

"I need help with this one," Jacky says on the comm, "when you get the chance."

~

"Do what you need to to help each other." Cal broadcasts. "I've got this handled here."

He can't take the time to find out what's going on near the stage while the drone controller is still standing. Which isn't going to be long. He's just a BLINK away and then he's not even that. He reaches out to try to grab the man's wrists to keep him from controlling anything physically and tries to tear away the visor and any headset telekinetically to make sure he can't do it in other ways.

~

Nancy is just about to pass the Jamie-barricade when her arm is caught by the SRD agent. She gives him a cute pout and pats his cheek.

"Babe, with a name like Backblast, you probably got a power. In which case, you should probably stay away from the Deadzone that is me. Believe me, we're on the same side."

She rotates her body as she was taught in self defense class when she was younger, the maneuver one uses to get out of the grip of a bigger, stronger person that is trying to detain you.

Once past the barrier of Jamies, she pulls out the stun gun, and without breaking stride ZAPs one of the pair of wizards as she catches up to the happy little normals she's trying to keep safe.

~

"No!" A woman in a similar suit as the man screams near Calvin. It's upon her words that a sudden searing white flash is released, one of intense eye burning light - it engulfs Mimic and the man he has closed in on.
A wrist snap and a headpiece snared later leaves the mutant there alone, unharmed with the disabled piece of equipment in hand but his assailant(s) both gone, drones, however nowhere in sight.

The woman back near the stage staggers and holds her blade up, swiping the air once before she topples forward landing in a sprawl upon the grass. No longer a threat to anyone but the ground she'll be drooling on.

"Power? Extreme machismo that the ladies go wild for! But no I'm not a mutant, wait, Deadzone, huh?" The 'huh' becomes an 'oof' as he ends up in the grass, not expecting that to have happened.

Pyro's body takes on a quick jitter-step before he stumbles and falls down only to be grabbed up by Avalanche who is already trying to clear the chaos and escape. No powers means no way. He does cast Nancy a death-stare that could wilt a cactus, however. His escape route cut off by several armed SRD men and a police officer.

Trask and Creed are now being escorted off stage by several of the SRD who were nearest them.

Meanwhile, the rest of the SRD is beginning to bare down on the gathering, weapons aimed at each source of 'out of the norm'

"ARMS IN THE AIR, STAND DOWN! STAND DOWN MUTANTS!"

The moment of pandemonium has started to show signs of clearing and surrounding the gathering are hordes of SRD, those who were unarmed now possessing weapons.

Xavier's voice is a mental whisper at first, "Do not worry, my X-Men, I am with you."

Yet nothing is happening yet. "Stop them! Stop the Brotherhood, the terrorists!" Creed is yelling, it's a blind command, no one is sure who is what yet. Just that the troopers around are beginning to aim weapons at the gathering, the Madrox's in particular as well as the diamond-skinned youth. Calvin's just out of range at the moment, Gambit has stealthed his way out with the crowd and Avalanche is beginning to raise a limb.

"Shit… " He curses out loud.

~

Jacky has downed the woman who just murdered these people and now he's got guns pointed at him? Well that sucks, he's too far away to teleport home and he doesn't have a bolt-hole nearby.

"Can't raise my arm. She cut it up before I could knock her out," he says to any nearby SRD that might be pointing guns at him, exaggerating slightly the extent of his injury.

~

"Keep an eye out. Two costumed tech types who can teleport may still be in the area," Cal broadcasts as he looks around for them. They probably ran away but at least he has a trophy. Maybe Hank can learn something from it. Turning back to flesh, he starts walking back toward the stage, just another normal human who ran away when things started getting hairy but is now returning since the nice police officers have things under control.

"Report."

~

Nancy holds her hands up by her shoulders, dropping the stun gun she just used on Pyro.

"Hey! I was just trying to help! Since when has wearing black been a prosecutable offense?"

She is nice enough to not even point to the two guys that were waving their hands like idiots. Mutant fidelity or something like that. She tries to smile and bat her eyes, looking all sweet and innocent.

"I just figured the safest place to be would be around those guys," she says, pointing to Creed. "Cause, you know… trying to keep them safe. So why not me? I like being safe. A lot! Safety is sorta my thing."

~

"Report? I dun even know whats going on, mon ami. I'm in de crowd I tink things be okay now though. Well, cept for Jamie, Nancy n' and Diamond." He doesn't mention Avalanche and Pyro. Who cares about them right?

Avalanche waves his free arm around, bouncing his Brotherhood companion on his shoulder, "This wasn't us! We didn't attack. This is someone else…," he yells at the SRD and the rest gathered.

"We're being set up or you idiots pissed off some other mutants, this isn't the Brotherhood!" he carries on.

SRD weapons cock, safety catches are snapped off.

"Madrox here… looks like we got trouble, that's my report. Like… a bunch of us about to be mowed down by some angry anti-mutant Sardines."

No one says anything in response to Nancy, as a matter of fact NO ONE is moving anymore except the X-Men, their associates and Avalanche. It's as if the rest of the world has just been frozen in time, Backblast, Creed and Trask included. This is Xavier's doing, Calvin has seen it before no doubt. There are reasons the man is regarded as one of the most powerful mutants alive.

"Withdraw, Calvin, send Avalanche on his way and bring the others home. I cannot maintain this much longer."

~

Jacky smiles suddenly as he realizes what's going on. Oh, that's just… wow. Maybe someday he'll get that strong. (Not likely.)
He goes all the way diamond, and moves to the rendezvous point where the plan said to collect if things went way south. Cal will be able to pick him up there, if he doesn't have him already.

~

Cal has indeed seen it before and he BLINKs to the stage.

"We know you didn't do this," he tells Avalanche. Though they tried and he'll find out later than sooner. "Get lost."

He gives the two Brotherhood a helping hand by porting them as far away as he can see.

"Nancy, rendezvous. Run."

Everyone else, he ports there, himself included. He knows the strain this kind of thing takes on the Professor so needs to make sure he can end it ASAP.

~

Just when Nancy is starting to cringe, still trying to look cute and harmless, (Damn, always works in the movies!) everyone goes still. Ooookey. Did Calvin get a new power that he didn't mention? She remembers the rendezvous point and starts to head in that direction. Passing by Avalanche, scooping up her stungun, she points to the SRD.

"I'd get gone before they wake up and start shooting first and asking questions later."

She looks over her shoulder and nods to Cal as he tells her to run and she does just that, not needing a second order.

~

"Well done, X-Men," Xavier compliments in parting as Calvin's teleportation clears them of the danger - the Professor's own power dropped once they were all completely clear. Telepaths could sense the man's strain as the link ceased. Obviously a taxing use of his abilities.

"Whoah…" Gambit exclaims his free limb patting himself down. "No jokes, huh?" He looks everyone over.

Avalanche and the unconscious Pyro were not much for words as Calvin punted them to the side, they're just about as confused as everyone else. Also Avalanche is the less brash of the two and knows his skin was just saved. No point in dirtying the water further.


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