2014.01.23 - Retraining Day

The last few days have been ..interesting. A mutant's life (-any- mutant's life) is rarely dull and uneventful. For some people, Domino being one such person, trouble is practically a daily occurrence. With how her week's been going she decided to roll the dice one more time and get some other business taken care of, regardless of what lands face up.
That's why Jocelyn's here, picked up right from the Institute. Since Dom's a bit low on wheels lately, that also means getting a lift in a silver Porsche 911. All-wheel drive is great for the snow, too!
Not much has changed with the albino, though a keen eye would notice that the armor beneath her trench is different. Updated, much more techish, same old style.
"Glanced over your file," she finally says to start something amounting to conversation. "I wouldn't say your powers are rampantly out of control, but you're sure making a lot of us oldhats look cheap." (And it's a damned good thing that someone like Xavier is around to make sure the person behind these powers is under control.)
Passing a pale glance towards the younger mutant, Dom asks "Is there anything you -can't- do, kid?"
Oddly enough, Jocelyn had some of those rare uneventful days lately. It happens every so often, and when it does happen, the woman made it a point to embrace them completely. Jocelyn has managed so far to not put her feet through Domino's car and wreck it this time, so she'd say this ride is going a lot smoother than their last one.
Jocelyn was dressed reasonably casually in a grey jacket and a pair of jeans. She didn't wear any armor, though she certainly noticed the difference in Domino's outfit. It was her job to be perceptive, in a lot of different ways. Outwardly, not a ton had changed with Jocelyn from that last visit either, though she was holding herself with a bit more confidence than she had on that previous trip.
"To answer the rhetorical question, I'd say teleportation is out of my reach. Precognition and any of that mind scanning stuff as a few examples. Mostly I've spent the last couple months relearning where the limits of my powers are," Jocelyn explains to Domino. "I'm not so sure they make you 'oldhats' look cheap. Just a different set of tools".
"Not so much rhetorical," Domino flatly replies while flicking the turn signal on then darting into position. (Just the spot I wanted.) "You're well into Omega-class levels, Joce. That sorta thing draws attention."
Flashing lights also get attention, a couple of squad cars caught within the gridlock a few blocks down. It's nothing she did, this time. Putting it out of her mind she turns at the next light, finding that the street is suddenly a good deal more open. There's also a peculiar glint along part of the sidewalk, sunlight brilliantly reflecting off of fresh, smooth ice.
"Huh." (Someone break a hydrant again? Damned kids.)
Normally she would have driven right on by, except that there's people running away further down the sidewalk. The building in front of that icy sheen is a fancier coffee joint, the inside completely covered in a frozen, transparent layer, along with everything else in it. Tables, chairs, counters, -customers-... Every last person inside of the joint is locked in place, seemingly completely unaware of when they were caught within the chill. It's such a perfect looking scene that one might question if a new-age artist created the entire presentation.
The one person left unfrozen doesn't look like an artist, however. Right after Dom's car rolls past he comes bursting through the ice-crusted front doors, the ground and details of the city immediately surrounding him quickly icing over.
(Didn't think this would take long.) "Your assignment starts now," she announces while coming to an abrupt stop along the curb. "Hope you brought gloves."
Comment about the Omega-class levels and what they were, as nobody has told Jocelyn this, would have to wait. The woman gets out of the car quickly, pulling in some kinetic energy to boost her physical capabilities up. First priority for Jocelyn was making sure the people lived. Suffocating would be a problem, with hypothermia being an issue if they lived that long. Jocelyn makes note of the direction the guy was going, as she'd want to catch up with him soon. But first it was a matter of saving lives.
Focusing, Jocelyn converts some of the natural solar energy around her into thermal energy and releases it in heated bursts in the store. The goal is to thaw out the customers, particularly their heads, so they can breathe and so that the police can get more medics there to fully treat them. She didn't even have to be in the store to do this, as she could see inside well enough. It should have the added benefit of heating the room of for a brief time, which would help a little bit. Hopefully it would be enough for medics to arrive on the scene to fully treat the people.
Ice-Dude would be easy enough to track with the obvious trail he was leaving, but she had to make sure the people would live and get medical treatment first. That was Jocelyn's first concern. Then she'd focus on catching up with him, once the customers were thawed and able to be dealt with. Being able to 'watch' him via his lifesigns was helpful in this case, even if pesky walls got in the way.
Domino's quick out of the car as well, though she doesn't come rushing to aid any more than she goes to intercept the rapidly fleeing one. She takes a seat along the front fender and glances down at her watch, noting the time as the cryogene hauls tail past her. It causes one of her boots to freeze to the concrete, a matter which is easily fixed by prying her foot away from the surface as though nothing were amiss. She had already gauged the affected radius around the guy as he dove out toward the street.
The X-Woman's progress becomes the albino's next point of focus. Where Jocelyn makes it seem effortless is something she recalls from previous encounters with the younger mutant. Bystanders are saved with the same ease that one might pull out their phone and punch in a well-known three digit number. Once they're broken free of their unexpected shells the panic sets in an instant, though the problem is largely over as quickly as it had begun. There will be some concern over frostbite and system shock due to rapid temperature shifts, though it would appear that there aren't any casualties so far.
Down the street the first of the squad cars start to arrive, screeching into place to block off the intersection before the folks in blue jump out, weapons already in hand. When they get a call about a 'meta problem' and someone that's obviously meta is sprinting away from the scene it tends to get them a little rattled.
"Rookie mistake on his part," Dom offhandedly says to herself. Tracking him is a no-brainer at this point. "Should introduce him to Iceman sometime."
The thing about energy manipulation is it doesn't look like it takes any effort. There's no physical movement by Jocelyn, except for maybe some hand motions here or there. It doesn't mean it doesn't take effort, but rather that the effort doesn't manifest physically. Nor does Jocelyn let it show during the crisis, in any regard. The people appearing to be alright, Jocelyn goes to move forward only to find that her shoes are also frozen to the ground. Instead of stepping out of them (she's still not rich, and shoes are expensive), she uses a light blast of thermal energy to free herself. Then she takes flight to try and catch up with the fleeing Ice-Dude, which is Jocelyn's internal name for this guy. Her mask, such as it is, is dug out of her jacket pocket and slipped on to provide some identity protection.
The officers are noticed, of course, and Jocelyn attempts to catch up with the guy from a safe distance above. She continues to emit out small thermal bursts below herself as protection in case she wanders too close and the heat needs to counter the cold. "You got two choices here. Face up to the crime and power down, or you're going to spook the officers and one of their fingers slip and stuff gets ugly fast, because these guys are looking a bit shaken up already". It couldn't hurt to try to reason with the guy, and Jocelyn figured this could also be a case of a guy with new powers who has no idea how to control them. Maybe. Or she could just be naive in that regard.
It's one of those issues that typically accompanies telepaths, too. They make it all look so blasted -easy.- For someone like Dom, where her power is idling until she starts throwing herself headlong into the direct path of trouble, it all looks so effortless. Telekinetics are still the worst. These days she happens to be working alongside one of 'em, too. How's -that- for luck?
Catching up is, well, easy when one can fly. Thing is, trying to thaw out all of those customers took some time, and Ice-Dude had a head start down the street. Sure enough, the cops are shaken. When one of the cops yells "Freeze!" Dom snorts aloud, hanging her head to laugh.
Turns out that's exactly what Ice-Dude does, too. He stops short, very nearly slipping upon the glazed over sidewalk surrounding him. He doesn't yell, doesn't so much as say a word as his hands reflexively come up. That's all it takes for a frigid blast to rush forth, covering a few of the officers and two of the cars so thoroughly that there's horizontal icicles coming off of everything caught up in its path.
"Ooo, that's gotta suck," the idle commentary begins as she pulls out her phone, taking a couple of pictures while mentally filing observations away for later.
Now the officers have -two- unknown metas, one that's -flying- and another that just froze some of their own! "On the ground, turn off your powers, -all- of you!"
Ice-Dude's even more torn, himself. Solid blue eyes jump toward Jocelyn then widen further, wisps of vapor drifting away from his stare as a physical transformation starts to come into play. The 'pool' of ice grows outward, cracking with a sound like sticks being broken in two. Some of the nearest officers start to back away, prompting more yelling in warning.
It isn't like Jocelyn is especially afraid of the police, though the one that says 'Freeze' does draw a look from the teen. Really? Really? Fortunately, she's more concerned for their well-being with Ice-Dude doing his ice thing all around them. She doesn't really respond to the request from the officers except for a quick statement. "I'm trying to hold this guy off. Keep back from him". Not that she actually belives the police will do the smart thing, but that was her background talking more than anything else.
Jocelyn then focuses on more thermal bursts, both to thaw out the officers and to provide a barrier to contain that expanding pool of ice.
"Hate doing this buddy, but you gotta stop". Jocelyn focuses on an actual energy burst this time, though instead of launching it at him from her hands or from above, she sets the origin point at his feet and angles it up and away from the officers towards a nearby dumpster, intending on using enough strength to knock the guy out, but not enough to kill.
An officer's life is full of the unknown. Will they get shot for pulling some guy over for speeding? Will they get shanked for catching some kid with drugs? Will some average Joe on the street suddenly show superhuman powers and go on a rampage? Their job is to take control of the situation. Sometimes they get a little carried away with that, sure, but they don't enjoy not feeling as though they are in control.
Right now, they don't feel like they have the slightest grasp on the situation.
In their eyes there aren't two sets of powers canceling each other out. There's simply two sets of powers being displayed directly in front of them, and at least one of them is harmful! There's more repeating of "Power down, on the ground!" and another frantically radioing for backup, Jocelyn's statement apparently falling upon deaf ears.
This flash-freeze is different than in the coffee shop. Back there everything had a light glazed over look about it. Out on the streets there's icicles flowing away from the point of origin. Trying to thaw those frozen officers out doesn't have the same effect, and when Ice-Dude gets blasted up and away toward a dumpster (still without a sound from him,) there's a reflexive flash of glacial wind which catches a wider area, including those previously frozen officers. One of them breaks apart, both the ice covering and the officer within. The other gets a heavy dose of rapid thermal fluctuation, causing him to explode.
At least the pieces will be easy to clean up later.
Ice-Dude may be removed from the situation but now the remaining officers have just one target: Jocelyn. The first pistol shot taken at her is out of panic. The rest simply follow its lead.
You could totally make an awful rap out of that statement. Some meta-rapper may already be working on a 'Power Down, On the Ground' anti-establishment rap. Though one would certainly hope such a thing doesn't come to pass. Jocelyn's eyes widen when Ice-Dude launches out glacial wind, causing two officers to go down. Or rather to explode. The woman curses, even as the bullets strike her and bounce off her pretty much harmlessly. This was one of those occassions where if she ran around in some flashy costume regularly she'd at least have the cops not shooting at her and maybe paying her words a little bit of attention.
Jocelyn flies over to check on Ice-Dude. If he's knocked out, she'll leave him for the police. If he isn't out, she's cloaking her body in that thermal energy bubble and delivering a knockout punch to his face. Then she's taking off and getting out of dodge. There wasn't anything else she could do at this point, and she knew it.
If that line of officers put their minds together they could probably come up with some formerly unheard of rhymes to capitalize off of. 'Hands behind your head or I'll shoot you instead!'
Maybe some other time.
Shooting at Jocelyn, surprisingly inefficient! One cop has the thought to dive for the trunk of his car, trying to gain access to bigger firepower lurking within. But, Joce is already gone, leaving behind the yelling and the reloading and all of the jumpy nerves. Good call, there.
Ice-Dude's not out yet, the green bin glazing over around him as he tries to pull himself to the surface, just in time to get a fist to the noggin. -That- sure ceases the spread of ice, yet still he doesn't make a sound. Not for lack of trying, perhaps. Lights were on but no one was home.
Now they're all sleeping off a nasty migraine.
From where Domino's leaning she watches the younger X-Woman disappear without a sound. "..Huh. Does that mean I'm not giving her a lift back to the mansion?"
Well, that works for her. If she sticks around any longer, at a distance or not, she's going to get caught up in the trouble. Especially with Ice-Dude lying with dozens of empty disposable coffee cups not much further away from her location.
Domino will get a text from Jocelyn a minute or so later.
Didn't need you shot at too.
Another text follows, giving Domino a particular location in Central Park. It might seem an odd spot at first, but Domino might recognize it as one of the more isolated and difficult to find locations in the area. How Jocelyn knows about it isn't indicated. It isn't something that would seem in her usual stomping grounds, at least from her profile that she got from Xavier's. Should Domino come by, she'll find Jocelyn sitting on a tree stump, waiting for Domino's arrival.
It's true, Dom's not very partial to gettin' shot. Already out on the road she catches the text, weaving her way through traffic to get her closer to the park. Without the aid of flying or teleportation or any of those other nifty mutie fast travel techniques she's at the mercy of Metropolis traffic.
It doesn't take her all that long to show up, oddly enough. She even snags a killer parking spot.
The location in question is noteworthy. Granted, anyone attending school tends to find little hidey holes and hangout joints where they have a little more control over their surroundings and present company. This place doesn't quite have the same vibe to it, though.
Even more curious is the request to meet up here. Curious enough that she chose to make an appearance.
Rather than dive into a teachery lecture, she simply inquires "What's up?"
Well, there was always the likely fact that she wanted to know how she did. The girl was a college-aged student. There's a certain thing about wanting to know how to did on a test, from the teacher's perspective. That's a likely reason. There's the fact that she up and left Domino without a word, and that didn't seem fair.
As to the location itself, it's one of those spots you'd really have to know Central Park to find, tucked away just so that noise doesn't filter out easily, and actually has a couple of excellent views on certain high-traffic areas.
"Figured I shouldn't just up and run on you, but like I said. Didn't need anyone else getting hurt. They'd have wrecked you or your car up if I jumped in, you know?" Panicing officers are something you don't really expect, and that was how Jocelyn had seen them. Kind of a rare thing. "Been going over in my head if there was anything else I could've done. I don't show up, they all get frozen and are gone in a couple minutes, tops. I'm not so good at talking panicers down, and that guy was more panicing than anything else, and not listening to words. Thought knocking him away from everyone was safest". The tone isn't so much justifying as it is going through events, trying to see where things could have gone better.
It's true, they would have been all up in arms of the one flying mutant hooked up with another in order to flee the scene. Domino can't fault the reasoning, though if she were going to be picky it would suggest a lack of familiarity with the albino's own powers. They probably would have made it out alright. -Probably.-
Given her merc mentality, she's with Joce on this one.
"Appreciate that thought. While the Beemer survived the one encounter between you and Thor, it didn't do so well around Pestilence." Damned guy wrapped it around a tree. Even luck can't always keep karma at bay.
Finding a tree to lean against, Dom loosely folds her arms together with each elbow falling into an open palm. Review time isn't something she had planned on, but what the hey. After what happened she's willing to share some thoughts on the matter.
"You went for the bystanders first. Followed Xavier's mission, saved more than a dozen people. By then the situation had already gotten outside of your hands, Frosty had direct contact with the cops. We all know they wouldn't have handled the situation as well as they could have, but short of sealing them all away inside of a bubble or teleporting them to some remote island, anything you could have done would have been interference. You weren't prepared for it any more than they were. Sometimes the best way to face a situation is from a safe distance, any amount of involvement has consequences. That whole cause and effect thing."
Let's just take a look-see at how many people she wound up getting killed because of her own decisions... It's a long list.
"While you seem to have a good grasp of your abilities, you over-extend yourself. Prioritize your targets, focus on them individually rather than all at once. You could have popped Frosty away from the cops without even being in the street, right? Trying to thaw the Blues while there were outstanding problems is asking for trouble, neutralize the threat first or it'll spread faster than you can keep up. By comparison, the coffee joint was clear when you entered. That was the right call."
"The biggest issue that I saw was that you overlooked some of the finer details. The way that the people in the cafe were frozen compared to the others outside. We also still don't know if that guy was mute or if something else was going on. Heck, we don't even know if he was guilty or acting out of self defense."
"Right, but it's Metropolis. They'll get the League involved, and they can figure out the mute, self defense, or super criminal thing. Given the cops, I wasn't going to get a chance to chat with him about his background," Jocelyn points out. This wasn't Gotham, after all. With the League holed up here, such things like due process happen. "Goal with him was to knock him out and let him get taken away for proper questioning. If he's mute, I've got no way to talk with him anyway".
"Would have been a tricky shot, that far away. Shots get easier the closer in you get, and there's less chance of hitting a bystander. Thought there'd be a chance of me hitting a bystander or a cop with it if I was too far away. Given his powers, that wouldn't have ended well. It might have been possible, if I hadn't stopped to thaw the people at the coffee place".
There is a nod at the statement about thawing the cops. "Yeah. I missed that. Those two were dead already, weren't they? I figured they had a minute or so, stuck like that. Suffocation will get you first". That had been Jocelyn's concern.
"No?" the albino woman counters with an upward-hooked eyebrow. "You sent him flying without touching him and flew like an oversized hummingbird, and you couldn't find a way to pull him aside for a talk? The best way to deal with conflict is to avoid it or leave it as far behind as possible, which is why we're having this talk here and not outside the cafe. Had he of been a higher priority, I'm sure you could have figured something out."
When the question is raised about those two having been dead already, Domino nods once in silence. "Thawing them wouldn't have made any difference, you just found out a bit quicker that way."
With that in mind, she continues. "Here's my biggest criticism, and it's something you get more from experience than discussion. Remember how the people in the cafe were? Frozen like statues, not a hair out of place. If I had powers like that and wanted to rob the place, I wouldn't have made the rookie mistake of running away. He may as well have had a GPS tracker on his forehead. With the cops it was more directed, harder-hitting. Quite possibly self-defense rather than deliberate assault. My opinion is that he never meant to freeze anything. Could be this guy's power chose a hell of a time to reveal itself. For all we know it might have cropped up when he sipped his coffee and burned himself."
"I suspect it might be the case. He had the look of a runner when I saw him. I think he might have been overwhelmed a bit. I'm...just not good at talking them down when they're in that state," Jocelyn admits. "I always botch my words and it ends up far worse than it could be".
Powers didn't help someone who didn't have the gift of gab, so to speak.
"At least everyone in the shop will be alright, and he should get some help at the League. They'll have someone who can talk with him once he's calmed down". That was her plan, at least.
"Not so great at that whole talking thing, myself," Domino admits. It's all 'affirmative' this and 'go to hell' that. "Though, one more thing for you to consider. You could have called for backup." She had been standing there the entire time. Clear shot at Ice-Dude, second set of eyes, and a very difficult to predict powerset. Her job was to review, no one ever said she couldn't be involved.
"C'mon, I'll give you a lift back to Xavier's."
"Last I checked, you didn't like taking orders," Jocelyn responds, recalling one of the few times they'd actually fought together. "Didn't think you were allowed to participate in my test, or you would have if you thought it necessary". Because Jocelyn didn't think Domino would let things get out of hand.
The teen gets off the stump and nods. "Works for me. Thanks".
Category:Log