2014-08-15 - Opening Shots: Start a Damned Riot In Here

Heavy bass and loud drumming at the bare bleeding edge of what the speakers can handle blares through the field just outside of Mutant-town north of NYC where Nation-X, the premiere pro-mutant rock-rap band, is putting on one of their raging concerts.
Hundreds, probably in the low thousands, of teens and young adult mutants are packed into the field, dancing, drinking, head-banging, and screaming along with favorite lyrics. Some wear plastic versions of Magento's helmet. One guy even has one with beer on either side and straws.
Quentin Quire is in his element. His arms are thrown in the air, standing on an old rusted oil drum to be 'above the crowd'. His fists pump. He yells the lyrics. This? THIS IS HIS JAM. And he doesn't care who knows it. His pink pseudo-mohawk flails with every shake of his head. His kicks-- a pair of solid, steel-toed combat boots-- stomp on the oil drum. The white t-shirt he wears is proudly emblazoned in red marker on the front with 'NATION-X: MUTANT NATION' and on the back with 'WAKE ME WHEN THE HUMANS ARE DEAD'.
The Hellions-- the kids from Massachusetts Academy-- are mostly in the same area he is. Manuel de la Rocha is doing something that could be maybe considered dancing, reciting along 'CAN'T STOP US NOW!'. Jenny Stavros is wearing something suitably skimpy for an outdoor concert: a fuschia tank top and very, very short jean shorts. A set of blonde quintuplets, similarily dressed to Jenny (just all in slightly different tanks) are seeming to only be vaguely enjoying themselves, mostly just bunched up with each other and-- they look like they are having some sort of conversation, but who can hear over the noise? And their mouths aren't exactly moving either.
Marie-Ange Colbert is significantly more uncomfortable to be dressed this way than her fellow Hellion girls; as what she's wearing is from Jenny's closet: a rich red tube top with a black lace shrug thrown over it and short black shorts. She carries herself with the sort of awkwardness that someone very much not accustomed to these sorts of social situations usually has.
For Jubilee, this was otherwise in her element. Heading on in the girl had been singing, "There's no chance for romance at the Space Jammm.. All right!" And otherwise along with a coterie of kids then who ewre attending the concert or otherwise there in case something happened for the part of security. Jubilee was there over for the show, her normal bodysuit replaced by a bright and glowy Nation X shirt, the girl having brought some glowsticks with ehr sunglasses down. "Let's get ready to PARRR-TAYY!"
Monet St. Croix had gone along with her 'classmates' in the Hellions. "How droll." Dark eyes scanning the crowd then. The music was likely not Ms. St. Croix's proverbial 'cup of tea' but she could appreciate the sentiment expressed, and as her dark eyes swept the area, "Quire, do make yourself useful for once in your life and be sure that we're not going to be noticed here now."
Dressed in Nation X t-shirt and shorts Roberto makes his way back to the Xavier's kids with a couple of less than legal beers in his hands. "Yo guys, anyone seen Sam?" he calls to his classmates. When the Kentucky boy doesn't seem to appear he shrugs "Right on, more for me," he says taking a sip from one of the beers as he nods his head to the music. The radical pro-mutant sound wasn't his thing, but hey it had a good beat and damn look at some of those women. "Everyone having a good time?" he asks the rest as he lowers his beer.
Tommy Shepherd zips out of the crowd to lean against Double Qs barrel and shoots the other mutant a grin. "Having fun?" he asks before tossing up a Nation X t-shirt from the merch stand. "Catch." He's wearing one too, and has a couple other items stuffed in his pockets. "Snails man," he shakes his head. Seeing Monet looking their way, the Xavier's freshman flashes her a smile and holds up an X on a little chain. "Keychain?" he offers gamely with a winning smile.
Julian Keller is over near the rest of the Hellions, doing a good job of dressing down in a pair of khaki cargos, combat boots, and his very own "Magneto Was Right" T-Shirt. (Come -on- guys...you don't wear the band's shirt to the band's concert!) Ah well. He's more or less moving along with the music as well, occasionally shouting out portions of the familiar lyrics, and clearly having a blast. At one point, though, he bursts out laughing at something, and casts a glance back towards those Quintuplets, shaking his head and grinning at them. After a look over the crowd, he moves over and tugs on Quentin's pant-leg, pointing out the familiar faces of a few Xavier's kids in the crowd.
Another dark-haired girl standing near the Xavier's kids looks at Roberto as he returns with the less-than-legal drinks, dressed in a pair of slimming black jeans and a burgandy velvet corsetted top, looks at the young man as he returns. Laura asks rather briskly, "You are certain, Roberto, that this is what people do to have a good time?" She frowns, finding the loud music - more annoying, than anything else. She seems more watchful of her surroundings, anticipating potential problems, rather than caring about what the band is singing about.
Walking along with Laura, Jubilee goes, "Yeah, we're here to be awesome and cool and radical." Jubilee went to fire off one of her sparklers, going to hold it up and over her head, while taking in the Hellions and making a face at Julian. Before waving her sparkler up and over her head.
Monet St. Croix glances back over at Tommy, "How quaint. Unless you have a Mercedes at the other end of it.." Monet waved her fingers dismissively over at Tommy, "Regardless, should we not be deafened and have our auditory senses overwhelmed by what passes for entertainment, I suggest we remain alert given how these circumstances normally end." Monet gave the Five in One a wary glance as well.
Roberto nods to Laura. "Yep, this is what we call a con-cert, where we drink b-eers, and uh, dance, I can't figure out how to make that one sound simpler. Anyhow, since Sam's AWOL want a frosty fermented beverage?" he asks holding out the bottle towards Laura only to pull it away again. "Damn, Jubes, watch it with those things, and stop mean mugging my evil twin wouldja?"
"Yeah, Laura," Kitty says, "This is what people do to have a good time." She, at least, isn't wearing the band's t-shirt-- she's wearing a Dazzler t-shirt... much more her speed of music anyway. She frowns at Roberto's beers, but really doesn't say much about them. Not like he'd listen anyway.
Q looks down at the white-haired kid at his feet and grins. "Yeah! I LOVE THESE GUYS!" he yells to be heard over the roar of the music and crowd. Monet? IGNORED. He's here to enjoy a damned concert, not... whatever it is she wants him to do. In fact, he mentally sends a telepathic swipe-- the equivalent of a light back-hand of 'back off' to her.
HIS. JAM.
Jenny slides her arms around Julian's neck, dragging him into a dance to the music, glee quite evident on her face. Manuel-- looks rather appreciatively at Jenny. And Marie. Not the Cuckoos, though, hell no.
Okay, and he follows Julian's gesture. "Xaviers kids. Great," he scowls. "We gotta go play nice-nice, oh great and powerful leader?"
"For you babe, I can make that happen," Tommy says to Monet that grin not getting any smaller then, at Manuel’s comment he turns his head towards the super-skeeze of Mass Acad and says "Yeah, standing right here you know? 'sides we're not all Uncle Charles over at Xaviers, there's y'know, uh, me."
Monet's eyes narrowed to thin slits back, "As if I would settle for something so cheaply manufactured as a Mercedes." Turning her attention back to Julian, "And, as droll as Quire is.." Glaring daggers at the telepathic 'shove' he had sent at her. "He does have somewhat of a point." Her tone of voice in a 'a stopped clock is right twice a day' intent.
Julian catches sight of Jubilee's face, and just smirks back at her, before he's happily pulled into a bit of the ol' bump n' grind with Jenny. When Manuel makes his comment, he shakes his head, grinning, "Well, I -am- great and powerful. And your leader, but we don't have to do anything tonight except enjoy ourselves. Ignore them if they ignore us, and if they want to party..." Julian double-takes as he notices Tommy here, then grins at the white-haired teen, "Then they can party. Wouldn't really be in the spirit of things to start crap with a bunch of other mutants at -this- concert anyway. They might revoke the backstage privileges I swung but hadn't told you guys about until now, y'know?"
Laura's face remains impassive, and she remains unimpressed. And by her mannerisms, she and Monet might be in perfect synch presently. "I do not understand how loud music that damages your hearing is considered 'having fun'. Their time would be better served conditioning their bodies that are in clear need of it." Her eyes stray towards Julian, assessing the young man precisely. Then, to Monet. And finally to Q, the Cuckoos, and Jenny.
Jubilee's head bobbles over at Laura, "Don't worry Laura. We'll find out! Just give yourself over to the rhythm." Jubilee's head was bouncing along with the music then, her sparklers held high then glancing over at Kitty. Subtly following Kitty's lead then and letting the teen's 'leader' be the one to give guidance.
Manuel looks at the white-haired kid. "...you're from Xaviers?" Must be a freshman, he reasons to himself.
Quentin begins stomping along with the next song, pointedly ignoring everyone else. Especially Monet. He catches the flung shirt, and punches the air with it in fist.
Marie-Ange winces a bit, looking between the other students, but keeping her mouth shut lest she become the next target. Manuel slides up beside her and moves to put his arm around her like he might try dragging her into a dance like the one Jenny and Julian are doing, but suddenly flinches as if a dozen bees suddenly stung him.
And Sophie and Quentin exchange a look that is, for once, not loaded with lust (him) or exasperation (her)-- no, rather they seem to just not at each other slightly and look more amused than anything else.
Roberto sighs. "Hopeless L, hopeless," he says and shakes his head. "Jubes you want?" he says about the second beer before he adds with a look thrown Kitty's way "I'd offer oh fearless leader but I know how you got to be about the rules."
Kitty rolls her eyes at Roberto. "Hey-- there's Sam--" she points out the incoming Cannonball-- who is... also carrying a pair of beers. "...ugh. You guys."
Monet shakes her head, glancing at Marie-Ange and crossing her arms, among the taller of the group of Hellions in her heels, "Shall we stop Quire before he does something insipid that will leave us lasting mental harm? And before the rest of you end up paying roughly ten times the going rate for alcohol?" Mental eyes sweeping the area.
Tommy looks over at Monet. "Wow. I have like a superfast brain and /I/ don't even change my mind that fast. High maintenance much?" he asks before he looks over at Julian and gives him a nod. "She always like this?"
Spotting Sam, Roberto grins and b-lines for him with a "Thanks Kitty," before he shouts "Hey irmao, great minds huh?" and throws a beer gripping hand over Sam's shoulder. Bros. What can you do, right?
Jubilee shakes her head, "Nah Robby I'm good." Glancing over at Sam, and then wisecracking over along with Tommy's diss over at Monet, "I'd say more like -what- minds."
"Yep, always." Julian notes to Tommy. "And probably forever." His smirk takes on a look of exasperated drollness, his tone laced with sarcasm, "And she's all ours. No Monet, Double-Q is behaving himself. He doesn't wanna get kicked outta this show." He chuckles, shaking his head, then removes one hand from Jenny's southern hemisphere *ahem* and extends it towards the white-haired speedster with a grin, "Julian Keller."
"Huh," Tommy says watching Monet for a moment. "What a waste of all that hotness," he says with a little shake of his head. Then he turns and shakes Julian's hand. "Tommy Shepherd. New inmate over at Prison X," he says by way of greeting then noticing the keychain still dangling from the finger of his other hand he holds up. "Key chain?"
The distant yells and screa,s shift in tone, from the excited noises of concert-goers to the panicked noises of...
"HUMANS FIRST!" "GO AWAY FREAKS!" "MUTANTS ARE MURDERERS!" voices can be heard from the edges of the crowd, yelling through bullhorns.
Great. It looks like the Friends of Humanity and their BFFs, the Reavers, have shown up to ruin yet another concert.
Marie-Ange glances towards the noise and lets out a sharp squeak.
Beside his BFF 5ever Roberto, Sam Guthrie glances towards the noise as well. "Most of the folk in this crowd ain't prepared to defend themselves..." he drawls. "We should step up."
Quentin... looks strangely thrilled. "Flatscans! Let's fuck 'em up, Hellions." A glowing purple shotgun appears in his arms with a thought.
Jubilee is likely amongst the first of the Generation X group to react (likely after Tommy and Laura, no doubt), calling out, "Woohoo! Loser has to pay for the tickets!" The 'competition' likely being whomever can take out more of the Purifiers, at least as much as Jubilee is thinking then as she went to start to break out over into a run with her fists cocked - at least if not stopped over by Katherine!
Monet glowered at Tommy, "I'll deal with you later." Then turningher focus over to the rushing Reavers, "And how opportunistic. One would almost think that they were a broken record." Did they have to do this every concert now then? "And for once I agree with Quire's revanchism."
Roberto nods to Sam. "You ain't wrong," he says tossing aside the beers and bringing out the powers. His skin turns black and he is surrounded by a glowing nimbus of solar energy which sort of paints a big target on him. He strides forward with a glance to Kitty. "C'mon, you gonna say it? To me my Gen-Xers?" he asks her. "Or what was it we decided last year, Gen-X assemble?" still for all the jokes Roberto is watching the on-coming humans and trying to figure out where his particular brand of punching is going to do the most good.
Kitty sighs at Roberto, but then--"Protect the people who don't have training! Get them out of here if you can! Don't escalate the situation!" And she phases and dashes towards the screams.
Laura looks over towards the call of the FoH and the Reavers, her eyes narrowing some at the disruption. She had been moving towards Tommy, and Julian. But now the Reavers have her attention, and she begins to stalk over towards Roberto, and the other Gen-X'ers. "Their tactics are apparent. They wish to encite people against us by antagonizing us to attack first," she relates to her team, though she's clearly ready for a fight. Then again, when isn't she?
"Seriously?" Julian glances over towards the newly-arrived pile o' bigots, shaking his head, "All right, all right, can't let the Xavier kids show us up." He glances over to Manuel, "Manuel, Girls (the latter to the Cuckoos), try to keep the crowd calm enough to get out of the line of fire in a calm and orderly fashion. A stampede is just gonna cramp our style. Q, Monet, you're the first-string for delivering all due beat-downs. Don't kill anyone, it's bad press." Julian spares a glance to see if the band is making it out OK on their own, then gets enveloped in a green corona of energy as he starts to lift off and move towards the altercation. "Jenny, give any body a boost or a bad time if they look like they need it. And.." He glances to Tommy, "Tommy, our friend Marie-Ange here isn't really one for this kinda scene. Keep an eye on her for us. Help her get outta here if she needs it."
Monet quick scouts, and agrees with Julian's tactical instructions, "Quire, don't get in the way too much. And avoid your ridiculous showboating." Monet went to fly on ahead towards the first 'line' of protestors then, attempting to telepathically 'boost' the sound of her voice, "You are intruding on a private event. Now begone before you exacerbate tensions with your unwanted presence." Of course, by the time she got there it would likely already be escalated past that point..
Jubilee was running on ahead towards teh Purifiers and Reavers, "Hey folks, you wanna get your freak on, go freak off somewhere else!" Jubilee's hands were over in front of her as she went at a full sprint then, listening to Kitty's orders off the edge of her hearing.
"Jules, get me closer--" Manuel says with a scowl. "I can only dampen so many, and it's probably better if I'm keeping tempers down up front and center."
The Cuckoos glances at each other, and then Sophie looks over to Julian and nods, the Five-in-One spreading out among the crowd, nudging people mentally to get out-- calmly.
Quentin is already shoving his way through the crowd, whooping. "Can it, Monet. Baselines are about to have their nights ruined." Still carrying his psychic shotgun in one hand, he reaches into a pocket and pulls out an inhaler much like an asthmatics, taking a quick puff.
His world expands. Time feels like it slows down-- and Quentin Quire kicks off the ground, barreling through some escaping mutants, landing heavy on his feet and aiming the shotgun at the front line of the flatscans.
Chaos reigns at the front line. Fists are flying-- and gunshots going off. Kitty grabs a pair of teenagers and phases out with them as a trio of bullets fly through them.
Sam Guthrie lights up-- literally, blasting off and barreling his way towards the front like his codename indicates. "Hey, ya'll-- watch this!" and he soars and blasts through a handful of the Reavers, knocking them to their asses.
Laura wastes little time, she follows the group of mutants to the edge of the fray, and while her assessment may be correct, things are already out of hand. The best she can do is what Kitty said to do - protect those that don't have training. One of the young Reavers chasing a young teen couple and terrifying them is quickly grabbed by the arm and lifted through the air, slammed into the ground and Laura's twisting his arm back, snapping it with cold, ruthless efficiency. That particular is likely now incapable of harming those without training, and she's already moving onto the next target to incapacitate.
Tommy blinks over at Julian. His first instinct is to resist but he tosses a look over at Mary-Anne or whatever her name is and changes his mind. "Sure thing Cap'n Rich-Kid," he says with a salute before he makes a b-line for the Hellion's girl and puts an arm on her back and braces her neck with his hand. "So did you have a big meal before the show? Because if so, you may want to take off your shoes."
As the brawl goes up, Jubilee cheerfully calls out, "Let's light 'em up!" A warning to the others as she went to use her powers, going to do her normal razzle-dazzle as she went to blast out over the area with her plasmoids, detonating them at a level to not cause damage, but rather cause a lot of noise and hopefully blind the edge of the crowd of PUrifiers and Reavers smashing into folks.
Monet boosts her speed, "Wonderful must you present yourself as a junkie as well Quire?" The comment tossed out and likely missed in the midst of the opening melee. Monet going to deal with things more proactively, intent if she can on using her flight to dart in through the crowds to try and quickly if possible disable anyone with weapons with her superior strength.
Manuel is promptly enveloped in his own green glow, and Julian TK-carries him towards the front line, depositing him near the fighting but out of harm's way for the moment. He makes a quick gesture with one hand, yanking the guns out of the hands of a few of the human protestors, as his attention falls on Laura snapping some poor shmuck's arm with surgical precision, "Damn, Stab-Girl, I thought -we- played rough. Sure you don't want to switch teams?"
Roberto finds himself standing in the middle of the chaos for a moment. He blinks then when Sam zooms off he says "Screw it," and gets airborne following Sam's path of downed baselines and keeping them down with concussive heat blasts, that hit like baseballs launched out of a supercharged hair dryer. "Woo. Okay this is so much better than World Cup."
Spotting one of the guys with a gun, the one shooting at Kitty and the teens, he gives him an extra hard blast to take him down before zooming after Sam.
Laura doesn't have the social experience to correct Julian with her name, she's been called worse than 'Stab-Girl', and she recognizes to whom he's addressing. As two more attempt to take her down for wounding their friend, she demonstrates further precision by slamming a hand into the soft part of his throat with enough control to not quite kill him (he'll just need to be fed through a tube for a few weeks), and following through to leg-sweep the second assailant and roll into him, twisting behind to pick up his foot, and there's another snap as his leg suffers a spiral fracture. Monet, at least, will be able to appreciate just how well trained the girl is. "I am certain I do not wish to join your team," Laura states, matter-of-factly.
Empath reaches out and roughly yanks the emotions of the humans he can see who look the most dangerous. He doesn't have time to be subtle. Or gentle. A couple of them drop to their knees sobbing.
"Assholes." Manuel snorts, scanning for other good targets.
Marie-Ange looks at the white-haired kid with a bit of a questioning look. "Um... no...?" she replies confused.
Cannonball whoops as he comes to a rather abrupt landing at the end of his pass. "One more time!"
Roulette flings her hand out, a disc of spinning white light hurling from her hand and impacting Julian before she repeats the process with Monet-- and then starts hurling a couple of black discs of sheer bad luck at the front-line Reavers and FoH.
Quentin? Lets loose a few 'shotgun blasts' of pure psychic energy, knocking back the flatscans he hits. "Drive 'em back! End them all!" Okay, maybe not the best thing to yell, but have you met Quentin?
Jubilee is moving ahead, using her paffs to try and blind folks throughout the area, intent on playing support - with luck her plasmoids would snap, crackle, and pop to blinding folks and disorienting them enough to let the heavier hitters try and smooth things down quickly. Hitting her ear to flick on her commlink. < Yo Kitty you're missing all the fun! Want us to leave soem for ya? >
Monet uses hit and run tactics, focusing on some of the more dangerous and armed members then, telepathically communicating back to Julian ~They seem to be somewhat overwhelmed. Either they will break or they will escalate in short order.~
Sunspot turns and hovers above Cannonball, blasting a couple of guys trying to take on the Kentucky mutant now that he's stopped. "Sure thing brother, but time to make like Elvis, less talk, more action, we're sitting ducks when we're not moving." To prove the point a bullet whizzes past Sunspot's ear. "Oh that's it." He fires a wide concussive blast into the crowd. "You follow me this time!" then he dives through the crowd throwing blasts ahead of him.
Tommy smiles knowingly "Good," then the brawl goes into slow motion for him and Marie-Ange as Tommy literally pushes her through the crowd. They pass through punches, bullets, people, trash cans, fence, the building across the street then, suddenly the world accelerates back to real time as they stop by a trash can a couple of streets over. Tommy let's go of Marie-Ange and directs towards the can. "Probably gonna want to hurl everyone does the first time, try to aim for the can."
"Well, if you're sure." Julian smirks towards Laura, a bullet narrowly missing him (thanks Jenny!). He glances towards the shooter with a look that's more annoyed than afraid, and not only yanks the pistol from his hand, but promptly TK-Pistol-whips him with it. ~Got it.~ Julian replies mentally to Monet's message. ~Let's hope it's "break."~
Kitty replies into her comm, "I'm not missing anything!" as she phases through another group, dragging another mutant out of a line of fire. "This is becoming a riot-- we have got to keep things from escalating worse, Jubliee!"
Cannonball barrels off after Sunspot, spinning and crashing through another line of Friends of Humanity. "Looks like we got 'em on the run!"
And he seems to be right. Between the Hellions and Generation X members and their quick defense, the riot is turning-- and the Reavers and Friends are retreating, dragging their downed companions with them.
Manuel scowls murderously at one of the retreating Reavers, who lets out a sharp sob of emotional turmoil and collapses, only to be half dragged, half carried by another one. Empath looks entirely too pleased with himself for that one.
And if Roulette follows that up with a handful of spinning black discs hurled at the retreating backs of the flatscans? Who could blame her? And if Quentin fires off several more shots, knocking several of them to the ground as they try and run...
Marie-Ange grabs her head as they come to a stop, dizzy-- and promptly vomits into the aforementioned trash can.
Jubilee calls out cheerfully into her comm <Got it. The one on the left is mine!> Right before Cannonball rebounds off him and knocks him to the ground, "Hey, I had dibs!" Jubilee glowers mightily then. "And who's ahead?" She fires off another burst of plasmoids up and ove rinto the air. "Looks like they're going!" Eyes quickly sweeping the area for the remaining Friends of Humanity members and looking for any of her teammates or civilians who might be injured.
Tommy turns away when Marie-Ange vomits. "Anyhow you going to be okay? Cuz I'm missing the riot and I figure I can score one of the band's guitars and sell it to Quentin for big bucks, so, if you're not going to die or whatever, can I get going?"
Monet quickly scans, commenting to Julian ~It appears they are withdrawing in disarray.~ Sending a telepathic query to the Five in One ~Are they fleeing or are they about to bring in reinforcements?~ The Five would have the greatest 'range' telepathically and she doubted that if she asked Quentin he would be so accommodating..
Roberto gets some altitude when he realizes Sam's the one who's invulnerable when he flies and goes back to covering his best friend's ass aiming specifically for the guys with the guns. Assholes. When the angry baselines break, Roberto comes back to land on the grass still glowing, just in case. "Woo, looks like it's win for mutant-kind and music lovers."
One of the Five--most likely Sophie-- replies in the heads of all the Hellions: ~We have a full retreat. They were not expecting this much pushback. However, there are also news crews, and Ms. Frost is watching this live. She has requested us to vacate the area immediately and return to the campus.~
There's a mental pause. ~She also says to say 'Immediately means at once, Mr. Quire.’~
Laura does not give chase as they begin to retreat, but she moves forwards to make certain that there is a line of defense, should they rally. She taps into her comm unit, < No innocents were harmed. > She cannot say the same for the protestors, and she looks over towards Julian, not having missed his efficiency and prowess with his powers. She simply nods to him, then comments as she nears Roberto, "They have inferior training. It was not a challenge."
With the Friends of Humanity running Jubilee catcalls, "Freaks freaks run away, try again some other day!" Upon hearing Laura, she let out a whoot, speaking to her commlink < Good guys win again! >
~Sophie, patch me through~ Julian "thinks" back towards her, and presuming she does, he broadcasts to the Hellions ~You heard the lady, boys and girls. Mom says we're out past our curfew. Guess I'll have to call a raincheck on that backstage pass.~ There's some genuine regret lacing his "tone" at that, ~Let's get out of here.~ He gives a little mock-salute towards Laura, "Seeya around." And with that, he starts to "collect up" those teammates that can't fly on their own and starts towards the exit, calling out towards Jubilee with a smirk, "Hell of a way to start the year, huh?"