Mutant High Issue 2: A Hard Lesson

[Relique du Madde]

OoC: Assuming we arrive after Alchemist.

Once she arrives at Alchemist's room, Miranda quickly glances at the room's more obvious contents. When she gazes at Alchemist the expression on her face is a subtle blend on concern, anger, disappointmentd, and hurt. With arms crossed in that uniquely feminine manor that reads as being both sultry and angered, she states in a somewhat calm and icy tone, "Nicholas, you got some explaining to do..."

 

[Caros]

Nicolas' soft humming paused, scissors hovering in his hair for a moment before he glanced in the mirror. He seemed to relax a little at the sight of Kitty and the others, actually quirking a tiny smile. Quiet as he was, Nicolas' visitors could catch a soft tune from his stereo, a haunting, feminine voice trickling from the speakers, his attention drawn to the device just long enough to flick a switch.

He nodded to the 'clean' half of his room, encouraging everyone inside before shutting the door behind them. Leaning against the workbench he took a moment to breath, absently running a hand through hair that felt as though it should be much longer. "Its a trap." He said finally.

He lifted his hand then, stifling questions for a moment at least as he continued. "Look, whatever you guys might think about me... " He paused for a moment, head tilting back to stare at the ceiling for a moment, starting again. "If I stay here I'm putting every student in this school in danger. I know with all the backup, shield and whoever they bring in, they can protect me. And everyone who signed up for the 'young' x-men can hold their own. But that covers... what, maybe half the students here at most?"

He shook his head, looking down once more, giving a single harsh laugh. "What happens when Quicksilver comes in with a knife? Or Nightcrawler grabs some first year who can 'bend wood' and threatens to kill him. What happens when Cyclops misses and falling masonry maims or kills someone who is here because his skin is green?"

Pain struck across his face for a moment, teeth catching his lower lip before continuing. "So I need to go." He chuckled grimly then, tapping his fingers along that workbench. "Of course I don't want to die either, and I'm certainly not making whatever insane invention they want out of me."

"So I'm going to play bait. Which is where you guys come in, its why I need your help." He grinned, waving his hand at the floor, the wood parting to reveal a sloped tunnel. "I 'dug' it last night. It goes about eight miles south. You'll come up on a highway about another hour outside of the Bronx. If you pace yourselves, you can be in manhatten by around five."

He was speaking quickly now, eyeing each person for their initial response, that wicked grin curving his lips. "I'll leave right out the front doors, and we'll meet up in a boarding school in lower Manhatten. I'm reasonably certain that they won't catch up with me until I stop. I'm also pretty sure if they think its just me, they're not going to send a whole team to do the job."

"While they have files on all of us, they won't be looking for the lot of you. Put you in uniforms and it'll look like I'm going to visit old friends. We get the drop on them, beat whoever it is to the ground, and come back with someone who can at least give us something to go on."

He sighed then, some of that excitement draining from his face as he finally added. "I know its a lot of 'Ifs and probablies'. Fact is, its all we've got to go on. 'Sides, if I'm gonna die, then I want some grimey New York food in my stomach when I do."

 

[Relique du Madde]

Miranda shook her head. "I like the idea; however, I see a glaring problem with it. Instead of having a handful of mutant bystanders at the scene we now could potentially have thousands of normal human bystanders." Miranda glances at the Heart Break High poster, "As much as I like the idea of someone thinking I'm a superhero, the ramifications of what might happen to the school if Quicksilver or whoever they send ofter us decides to use normal people as meat shields kind of scares me."

She thinks for a moment, "There is also the problem dealing with the fact that you could always be attacked when we are not around. Considering that it would look suspicious if a group of 'x-men' follow you around in uniform, we'll have to come up with a way to make sure that we are not to far from you when the assault happens." she grins. "Course, we *can* get around it if we look like a group of trench coat wearing goths or studded-leather jacket wearing punks or greasers. Luckily, I am decent with costuming and make-up so we can help us disguise ourselves, but it would unfortunately it would take time to do so."

If only we had access to a car..

 

[Shayuri]

"Yeah, I dunno about this," Astrid says. "I'm thinking we have a whole bunch of people here who are -actual- superheroes, you know? Who do it for a living, more or less. Why don't we tell THEM about your idea, and ask them for ideas? Because it seems to me like, if you run away from here, you're basically handing yourself to the bad guys on a silver plate, maybe with us as a garnish."

 

[kirinke]

Serena after finding the Danger room manages to wander by Nicolas' room by sheerest accident. Listening into the conversation, she coughs loudly, attracting their attention.

"Running won't solve your problems you know. Hiding won't either. If they found you here, they can find you anywhere. These guys sound like profesionals and quite frankly you, us and I are just kids. They'd have us for lunch, no matter how powerful we might be. Because quite simply, we don't have the expertise or experience in going undercover or going to ground as it were." She said, looking at the boy and other teens, disaproval clear in her expression and voice. "

She smiled a little. "Lookit, we're all in danger around here, simply because we are mutants. Just because you have a nifty ability, doesn't mean you should play into their hands. They want you afraid and without people around you so you can be taken easily." she said, leaning against the door-frame. "And even if you had some of the more powerful kids at your back when you leave.... Doesn't mean you'll be safe."

Even though she sounds like a typical street-tough kid, she does have a point.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Miranda glanced to Serena and smirked. "Alchy's plan wasn't to hide from his problem.. it was more along the lines of rushing head on into it while hoping he could trick it into stepping on a land mine.."

Miranda sat down on the corner Nicolas's bed then momentarily glanced down to the floor as she thought out loud, "As much as I love convoluted plans which are inherently flawed, which I do, as most of the students here know..." She smiled towards Astrid and Nicolas since, "I"m pretty sure that if we were to take a vote, the result would end up as either: Sit and wait, or ask a teacher what they would do."

"So, I'll save us the hassle of asking a teacher.." She grinned and cupped her hands as if holding a magic 8-ball. She shook her imaginary magic 8-ball hard then looked into her hands. "It looks like Wolverine saids 'Traps are for pansies; let's do a full frontal assault bub.' Figures he would say that."

She chuckled as she shook her 'magic 8-ball' once more. "Cyclops saids, 'Ask again later.'" She shook her hands again. "Now he saids, 'It's best to let the X-Men handle it...' Funny because I thought half the X-men were put out of commission during yesterday's fight. No wait, now he saids, 'ask me again later after you report to the Danger Room for instruction.''

"Just in case you're wondering what Professor X would say I'll ask him telepathically." She put the imaginary magic 8-ball in her lap then placed her index and middle fingers against her forehead, "He saids, 'You responsibility to your fellow mutants and humankind. It is foolish to risk the lives of your comrades and of innocents by making rash decisions when you do not know who or what you are facing." Miranda then acted as if she were putting away her imaginary magic 8-ball. "So, does anyone want to ask the teachers what they think for real?"

 

[Jemal]

-Wilderness- (Spike/Logan)
Logan and Spike slowly closed in, keeping their keen senses open. Both noticed it at about the same time, jerking their heads to the left as they heard the approaching 3 sets of footsteps. "We'll take'm by surprise and see what info we can drag out of'em" Logan motioned for Spike to hide, then swung himself into a tree.

A moment later, the three walked close enough for them to see. They were obviously mutants.. at least, two were. One was blue skinned and covered with quills which lay flat against his skin. The second had a decidedly feral look to him, and the third appeared to be a normal woman. As they got closer, the feral one stopped suddenly, sniffing the air.

*Initiative, and surprise round actions. They're about 30 feet(10 meters) away, only the feral seems aware of any danger*

-Alchemists Room- (Nicholas, Miranda, Astrid, Serena, Xi'an, Pyro, Kitty)
"I say we do it." The unexpected words poured from Kitty Pryde's mouth before she even seemed to realize it. "They wouldn't be trying to 'recruit' us if they weren't going to put at least some of us out there to do something.. Unless they're doing this just to keep us busy, keep our minds off everything.

She takes a deep breath before continuing. Either way, who knows US better than US? We know what we are and aren't capable of, we don't need Mr Summers' tests to tell us that. We've got two girls who can walk through walls, one who can control water, one electricity, and then the guys... Pyro controls fire, Xi'an can heal us if we are hurt and Nic can pretty much control and reshape matter. I don't know about you guys, but that sounds like a team of super-heroes to me!"

-Auditorium- (Temper, Eric, Fury, Jubilee)

Jubilee shook her head at Temper's response to Eric, standing nearby "I hate to say it, babe, but you sound more robotic than that cyborg that attacked us yesterday. I'm not trying to be mean, it's just that you talk like you haven't had regular human (or mutant) contact for years, I think that's what gets everyone. You're overly analytical, treat everything like logic's all that matters, and everything should be debated. You're a teenager in a highschool, girl, not a scientist or a politician!"

*EDIT: Rechecked to se where everybody was and found out that Alchemist's room is rather full. Also added a bit for the Auditorium*

 

[kirinke]

Miranda glanced to Serena and smirked. "Alchy's plan wasn't to hide from his problem.. it was more along the lines of rushing head on into it while hoping he could trick it into stepping on a land mine.."

Miranda sat down on the corner Nicolas's bed then momentarily glanced down to the floor as she thought out loud, "As much as I love convoluted plans which are inherently flawed, which I do, as most of the students here know..." She smiled towards Astrid and Nicolas since, "I"m pretty sure that if we were to take a vote, the result would end up as either: Sit and wait, or ask a teacher what they would do."

"So, I'll save us the hassle of asking a teacher.." She grinned and cupped her hands as if holding a magic 8-ball. She shook her imaginary magic 8-ball hard then looked into her hands. "It looks like Wolverine saids 'Traps are for pansies; let's do a full frontal assault bub.' Figures he would say that."


She chuckled as she shook her 'magic 8-ball' once more. "Cyclops saids, 'Ask again later.'" She shook her hands again. "Now he saids, 'It's best to let the X-Men handle it...' Funny because I thought half the X-men were put out of commission during yesterday's fight. No wait, now he saids, 'ask me again later after you report to the Danger Room for instruction.''

"Just in case you're wondering what Professor X would say I'll ask him telepathically." She put the imaginary magic 8-ball in her lap then placed her index and middle fingers against her forehead, "He saids, 'You responsibility to your fellow mutants and humankind. It is foolish to risk the lives of your comrades and of innocents by making rash decisions when you do not know who or what you are facing." Miranda then acted as if she were putting away her imaginary magic 8-ball. "So, does anyone want to ask the teachers what they think for real?"

"Not really. It's clear they're preoccupied," Serena replies. "But leaving right now is really, really stupid. This place is sure to be watched by whoever planned the attack and they're probably waiting for you to panic and leave." she looked at the others, her expression troubled. "We don't even know what these guys can do really, but they do know what we can do. Have you even thought about that?" she looked at each of them.

"So would they least expect...." she looked at the tunnel entrance thoughtfully. "Alchemist, you said you built a tunnel right? Instead of leaving.... Why not pretend to leave and hole up in the tunnel. We can sneak you food and help you build up the tunnel to something livable. If trouble does happen, we can get help quickly. Plus you could make additional tunnels to throw off pursuers if the try to track us. With our abilities, we could make what you build into a death trap for anyone stupid enough to chase us in there." she offered. "I mean it is hiding, but at least you aren't exactly running."

She shook her head. "Frontal assaults generally wind up with the assaulters getting hammered. At least this way, we are drawing whoever it is that's after Alchemist into an area of our own choosing. Instead of them getting the drop on us, we get the drop on them." she grinned.

"Basically, I think we shouldn't leave or at least, we shouldn't leave the school grounds. If we do, we'll be walking straight into their arms. We know this area, or at least you guys do a heck of alot better than wherever it is you're planning to go Alchemist. If we use our abilities to create a maze of traps underground, we will be making an area of our own design, one that we can manipulate at will. I say, instead of running a frontal assault, let's lure them into our own ambush."

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

Seeing his chance, and his one and only, at that, Spike rushes forwards, hoping to catch the bad guys unawares. He runs at the group, his spikes ready to do what is needed, as he swerves through them all, spinning at each of them as he does so. Making sure to try to make it an even playing field, Spike then keeps his momentum, moving past the foes, and to the opposite side. Hopefully they would not notice Logan, who could then flank them and do his own little dance.

(I think this is legal: Move By Action, with Rapid Attack against all of the foes that are next to each other. +12 Spikes Melee attack, right?)

Rapid Attack with Move by Action (1d20 12=15)

ooc - Doesn't look like I did much there... I think I am going to go ahead and use the Hero Point, just to make this a worth while attack...

Rapid Attack with Move by Action, Hero Point being Used now... (1d20 12=26)

Ok, better, hopefully it's effective. +12 dmg, Penetrating 5

 

[drothgery]

-Auditorium- (Temper, Eric, Fury, Jubilee)

Jubilee shook her head at Temper's response to Eric, standing nearby "I hate to say it, babe, but you sound more robotic than that cyborg that attacked us yesterday. I'm not trying to be mean, it's just that you talk like you haven't had regular human (or mutant) contact for years, I think that's what gets everyone. You're overly analytical, treat everything like logic's all that matters, and everything should be debated. You're a teenager in a highschool, girl, not a scientist or a politician!"

"Do you know anyone who's extremely intelligent, and extremely under-socialized?" Eric said. "That's a big part of why my parents were glad I got into team sports. It's hard to do well without understanding people. Professionals might try hard for teammates they don't like, but high school kids won't."