2014.02.06 - Panic At The Mall

A shrill, penetrating, scream pierces the heart of the NYC Mall Center's Food Court. The hustle and bustle of people going to and fro' in the mall proper is such a raucous cacophony it drowns it out though.

"YOU...!" A woman of comparatively small stature jerks a much larger man up by the shirt in the midst of a crowd beneath the plae, yellow and red, lights of a McDonald's counter. The snarling, ebony-haired, female draws some looks of concern from passerbys at the sight of her hoisting a man nearly twice her size into the air. Down the front of her halter top and blue jeans is evidence of her cause for rage - a spilled soda.

"YOU WANT TO DIE, PUNK?!"

"Sorry! Sorry! I was in a hurry!"

Crowded and busy as the mall is today, it should be no surprise people would naturally bump into each other.

The man is suddenly dropped, and he darts off as fast as his legs will carry him. The female in question groans, squatting low to clutch her head. Briefly, distortions of color wash over her attire and, oddly, her body. "...Why... Why are we..."

Well, you know, they always told her to be careful. Not that Megan Gwynn ever really listened regardless. Most of the time, she preferred to hit the mall with a gaggle of friends, but today - the Pixie was flying solo. Megan Gwynn had a bag from the Bath and Body Works equivalent here, that rattled and clunked as she moved along. Dressed in a green turtleneck (with wingholes cut for her, of course), and jeans, Megan had a cheery demeanour as she kinda steps along one of the paths in the mall, casting cheery grins at people who give her weird looks. That is, at least, until there was the commotion just over yonder. A scream! As far as superheroes went, Megan didn't ever really feel particularly heroic, but the young woman still was drawn by curiosity and the thought that Maybe She Could Do Something. And so, here was Megan, shifting the strap of her bag higher unto her shoulder as she reaches the edges of the crowd that surrounded Agony - said crowd no doubt giving Agony a bit of space. Squeezing through the gaps in the crowd, with wings tucked tightly at her back, Pixie manages to squeeze through to the front, and kinda see... "Um. Are you okay?"

Tabitha Smith was never really not shopping. Abstractly speaking, she was always on the hunt for potential weirdness and good times, but also, quite specifically with clothing. While 'The Mall' wasn't her usual spot, preferring to wear a random assortment of thrift-found, hipster gear, she heard that this spot had opened up a Hot Topic, and she wanted to check out their belt selection. 'Cause you can never have enough belts, she thought to herself, with complete sincerity. She was herself wearing a dark grey denim vest, a cyan-colored, plaid mini-skirt, and a bright red t-shirt with the words 'YOUR FAVORITE BAND SUCKS' in large white letters on it.

Stepping into the mall, she was instantly overwhelmed with the music: they were playing some kind of 'remix musical review', which featured interwoven tracks of every Dave Matthews song ever created. Tabitha's ears begged her to turn her ass around and leave, but she stayed resilient despite the aural assault. She passed by the INFO BOOTH, and without saying a word, randomly hi-fived the bored young man sitting there, who just cast her a silly stare. Yeah, her life was an irreverent 80s comedy, she thought, and strutted over to the main courtyard on the first floor, thinking she may as well get herself a nice little chalupe. She had no idea what that was, but adored the word... and, god willing, she was going to find out! Her determination was met with quick second-thoughts, however, as she gazed upon the long lines of the bustling area.

"Dang-tootin', darn-blasted, crap-cakes!" she shouted, standing only a foot away from a group of young adults scarfing down some generic fast food.

By this point, the woman in question is snarling in so bestial a manner, and biting so hard on her teeth, that most people around begin to back up rather than approach. This might make give Pixie some relief with the regards to the squeezing through, and certainly allow her to see better... but it also potentially sets her up for a bad time...

"...W-Why..." Leslie's pulls her lip into her mouth as she continues to visibly fight some sort of migraine there on the floor. Her bite force is significant enough to bite right through her bottom lip. And as a rivulet of blood runs down her chin to splash upon the floor, she finally just loses it.

"WHY ARE WE HERE?!" She screams again, and this time an explosion of violet and ebony oil-like mass erupts from her body and covers it completely. Suddenly, a stream of black mass flies out from her backside and jerks her airborne. She turns upside down upon it, grasping at its fiber, before lashing out with another at a male passerby and flinging him across the Food Court. With a gurgling scream the oily black alien hybrid Agony cries in unrestrained fury, "WAIT IN LINE?! WHY SHOULD WE WAT IN LINE WHEN FOOD IS EVERYWHERE! KEHEHEHAHAHA!"

Pixie kinda just... stares blankly at the shifting woman before her, her mouth slowly falling open. As seconds tick by, her wings - once tucked neatly against her back, start to unfurl and spread, opening up behind her as if she were getting ready for flight. A little shrug of her shoulder, and the bag full of wonderful smelling bathroom products falls to the floor. Even if Pixie bends to the side, plucking up the cherry blossom body wash from the top of the bag, to put it into her pocket. Never once did she take her eyes off of the symbiote. "Now - hold on - hold on!" she calls to the once-woman. "Your power is getting out of control - I know some people who could help you, um..." How did X always put it? "Train you to... you know - hold onto the... anger and stuff, help keep you safe?" Pixie was sounding less and less sure of herself.

One of the seated men below Tabitha stood up, looking angry. "What're your PROBLEM?" he said to her, his volume increasing with each word. He was dressed head to toe in LAKERS basketball swag and shot her the death-stare.

"How come this place is so popular?" Tabitha asks, perhaps to this man, perhaps to herself. She didn't seem terribly upset or attentive to the man's outburst-response to her outburst-response. Outburst responses were Tabitha's bread and butter, and she began panning the shops in the food court, speaking each out loud. "Plumpies... Duck Swap... Rice Villa.... Burger Paradise... Boy Flying Over A Crowd Crashing Into Table..."

That last one Tabitha made up--or more accurately--was merely describing what she saw. This guy either hated the crowded spot even more than she did, or there was something *weird* afoot! Bringing her gaze to the likely origin of said person-flinging, she locked onto the struggled, wily sight of Agony all gooped-out, and her facial expression read surprise. Now surprise was a feeling that Tabitha enjoyed quite a lot, but she was usually the one doing it. Was this competition?! She had to find out. Within seconds, she'd ducked and bobbed her way through the crowd and was soon right between Agony and Pixie, her eyes all investigatory-ish.

"Okay," she said, looking at Agony, "I don't wanna to bite your style, hon, but where'd ya get the suit? I totes want one for my next WWF party." She turned to Pixie, a complete stranger, and stage-whispered to her, "They call me the Bulimic Brawler."

The 'head' of the Symbiote seemingly splits in twain, producing rows of razor sharp fangs and baring them for all the Mall to see. A gurgling, bestial, roar escapes the Symbiote soon after, following her essentially turning a random guy into a projectile. Oily black tendrils flail and lash at the air, having manifested sometime during her prior fit of rage, before she turns her focus on Pixie.

And a malicious sneer comes as the thing eerily extends its 'neck' the get a closer look - it's jaw lolls open and purple tongue sloshes lazily about. From that tongue, a black liquid drips onto the floor... burning holes right through the tile floor on impact. "HELP US...?"

"HELP USSSSSSSSSSSSS?!"

The Syumbiote lashes out with its oily black fibers again, seemingly generated from its own mass, this time grabbing a nearby table and swinging it violently and aimlessly about like a flail while raging. "WE ARE NOT NEEDING HELP FROM YOUUUUUUUUUU!!!"

Hit or miss literally anyone, it then turns a flip through the air over Tabitha's head and lands on all fours nearby whilst chucking the (possibly broken) remnants of the table behind. All without even looking or using its limbs. "WE WILL NO GIVE YOU OUR SPAWN!!! YOU WILL DIE!"

Well, there's the answer to that question.

"I um... hi! Bulimic Brawler!" says Pixie, her voice accented pleasantly Welsh. Bringing up a hand, she gives a cheery wave and a grin to Tabitha. Well, mostly cheery. Those in the /know/ could probably see the strain in her expression. "Um! Um..." Pixie returns her attention back to the symbiote and host. "Yes!" enthuses Megan, when the woman appears to be asking for help again, stepping forward - a bit reluctantly - away from her bag, her eyes shifting down to the hole burning in the floor, a ~little~ more strain entering her smile. And okay. The flailing gets worse. And Megan squeaks. "Everybody ruuuu~n!" she calls out at the top of her high pitched voice, the young woman taking to the air with a sudden flap of her wings, as she lifts to the air. "Please don't kill me, please don't kill me!" she calls out, flicking her eyes briefly to Tabitha.

Tabby was having trouble keeping focus because Agony was standing near a Gummi Bear Shop a few stores behind. This made Tabitha's eyes bounce back and forth, all the while Agony demonstrated her pleas and subsequent rejections for help. Tabitha was making a mental note to check that place out, and wondered if she could get custom Gummi Internet Troll Faces so she could give them out to people in The Village. Or maybe Gummi Agony-monsters! Those might sell, she thought, visualizing young children holding up their Gummi Agonys, sloshing their open-mouthed tongues wildly, making snarling noises.

This idea made her snicker devilishly, which she thought might somehow be rude given the interaction, so she turned away to muffle it. Doing this, Tabitha caught sight of Pixie's wings for the first time, and her eyes went wide. "OMG FAIRY PRINCESS!" she yipped, followed by a panicked-twitch, realizing that Agony was now jumping *OVER* her, tentacle-arms moving every which way.

This was clearly a job for a hero. Tabitha stepped a few feet forward, looking at Agony with determination. "You wanna flip some tables?!" she shouted scoldingly. "Let's flip some tables!" Tabitha then proceeded to knock over a random table next to her, inadvertently having it land on a fleeing customer's leg. "You're scaring the princess!"

Agony's toothy face turns, neck twisting inhumanly to follow the table Tabitha flipped over, as it continues to squat idly in a feral posture on the floor. Its visage is almost an exaggerated, murderous, smile with rows of pristine teeth practically made for severing limbs on display. It remains oddly quiet, momentarily, as it watches the injured customer attempt to pick themselves up and limp away. The energy of tendrils becomes more subdued during the brief spectacle, almost as if its fragmented mind were actually thinking about something other than eating the interlopers.

Finally, it's neck twists back around toward Tabitha again. "PRINCESS?!" The alien's head jerks in Megan's direction, mouth lolling open again momentarily. "...FAIRY PRINCESS?!"

The moment of peace doesn't last very long.

Another roar erupts from Agony, tendrils transforming into bladed wires and stabbing holes into the ground before jerking a concrete chunk straight up and flinging it over Tabitha's head into the lit up McDonald's sign. Sparks erupt as the light goes out, the back-wall bursts into flame, and the last of the employees flee. "....KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Finally the Symbiote leaps... not at Tabitha but at the limping customer and pins him to the ground. The fleeing throngs scream as the monster joins their midst, with people flinging various objects at it to no avail. "... WHO CARES, WE HAVE FOOD!!!"

Megan was actually quite terrified. But there was a certain part of her - a lingering part of her training or otherwise that lets her kinda hang out near a ravenous creature like this without just... flying away. What Megan had to do at this point was ~attempt~ to distract the monster long enough for the people to get out of there. Stopping her frantic flitting about to hover in place a moment, Megan just... kinda lingers there, watching the creature kinda... scoot away. And it clearly wasn't working. "Uhm. Yes! Yes! I'm a fairy princess from the land of... ohgoddon'teatthatperson!" Megan cries out. Think think think. Dust it? Would that even work? Probably - it's worked against everything else, but she had to do something /right now/. Reaching into her pocket, Megan twists the top off of her beloved cherry blossom body wash, and flings it at Agony, the fear she felt in her heart coupled with a brief tug of loss.

Tabitha momentarily feels a sense of her own mortality, and steps back a few staggered paces, an effort to dodge flying concrete and spark-spurting Mickey-D's signs.

"Okay, fine," Tabs calls out to Agony, trying to get her attention. "You can join the wrestling league. But leave that guy alone... he isn't even in your weight class!" This chatter was Tabitha's ploy to distract the creature while she not-so-nimbly thought of a plan. "I'm not calling you fat. You're hungry.. I get that..."

She sees Pixie throw something, and she gets an idea. Her powers! Right! She jumped atop one of the not-flipped tables on the courtyard, and a small, orange energy ball started sparkling in her hands, and she goes to pitch at Agony like a baseball. "Why don't you have a bite of this?"--with that, she chucks one of her time-bombs at Agony's mouth slash head.

The thrown objects tossed at the alien-hybrid by the gathered crowd seem to just bounce harmlessly off of its face and body. Chairs, tables, sodas... body wash... all of it just bounces off ad the body wash splashes to ground and mixes with soda as the alien stares ponderously at its potential lunch.

Then it gets a smell of that body wash.

"KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Another piercing scream penetrates the heart of the Court, and then the alien turns its head 180 degrees to stare at Megan with a murderous glare. "...WHAT FOUL CHEMICAL IS THIS?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO US?!!" The Symbiote's oily black mass suddenly spews body wash it had begun to metabolize from its form in every direction. And as Tabitha energy sphere makes contact with the distracted monstrosity, the chemical spray becomes an eruption of fire in every direction!

Screams of pain and anguish come from the alien's violently flailing head as it leaps away from the (possibly burnt) man it was pinning down. and onto a table far from Tabitha. The oily black monsters sets the table ablaze on contact as it continues to scream, jumping from table to table to try and exit the Food Court and find a fountain to jump into...

The brief flicker of victory that comes from Pixie at seeing her body wash strike true falls in a hurry. Still hovering with rapid flickers of her wings (hopefully) well out of range of the symbiote, Megan can't help but wrinkle her nose. "It's not... it's not /foul/. I mean, it smells pretty... right?" asks Megan, suddenly sounding doubtful. There was a long pause from her, Megan dipping down to swoop after the symbiote's 'meal' after Agony leaves him alone, intent on dragging him out of the line of fire. But... he was kinda heavy. And she wasn't sure if Tabitha could... Megan breathes out a sigh. "We gotta help her!" she calls out to Tabitha, "I mean, once she wakes up and controls it, she'll feel terrible if she... you know, eats someone," she says. Despite the brief distraction of pulling the man behind one of the restaurant counters, Pixie was up and away - starting to chase off after Agony.

"Wow," Tabitha remarks watching Agony jump from table to table to make its escape, "I'm going to put a request for less of *those*. Where's the suggestion box?" The question is directed at a random customer, an elderly woman, who looks up to Tabitha's table-topped self with an expression mixed of terror, confusion, and judgment. Tabitha, possibly inspired by Agony, jumps from her table top to another one, closer to Pixie. "Whee!"

Standing up right, she scans the remarkable amount of damage that the food court has sustained in just a few minutes. That monster did her a favor, she thought, by clearing out over half the people in the court. There were like, no lines at all now. Tabitha's eyes jumped back over to the Gummi Store quickly... still open! Phew!

"Yeah, you're right. Let's go get her." Tabitha jumped down, and looked down the mall corridor, preparing to chase after Agony. What's your name, girl?" Tabitha said, looking up to the flighted Megan. She then pointed her thumb at herself, "I'm Tabitha. Boom-BOOM-shakalacka." She wondered if the fairy-girl would assume that's her real last name. "I'm a real big deal super-hero, you know. You can tell, right?"

Megan glances back towards where she had left her bag. Gone. Either by the maddened rush of people kicking it all over or someone stealing it. Sigh. Glancing down at the hyperactive antics of the bouncing Tabitha, Pixie kinda frowns a little bit, chewing on her lower lip. "I'm Megan," she says kinda demurely, glancing off after the point where Agony had lept off. "I can kinda tell. I mean, you seem to have a lot of energy, and you did save that guy from getting eaten... it's kinda scary when people lose control of their powers like that," says Megan, giving her head a little shake as she starts to flit off in that direction. "I'd imagine it's kinda scary for her too!"

"This one time I lost control and broke into an arcade," Tabitha noted, grabbing a small, lonely, paper tray of curly fries left behind. "But I regret nothiiiiiiing!" she shouted while sprinting towards the area that Agony had fled. "C'mon!" she yelled back.

Tabitha's beat-up, old, red converse shoes squeaked as she stopped suddenly, rounding the corner. She just stood there, eyeing the scene ahead of her. It was an entire corridor of stores that'd been smashed up, virtually every window pane's glass had scattered across the floor, almost like they'd exploded. "At least tracking her won't be hard," she remarked, waiting for Pixie to catch up, snacking on some fries.

"This seems different," says Megan, "She's like a werewolf or something. Except with tentacles," says the Pixie, kinda grimacing. There was a little trail of sparkles that kinda followed along after Megan's little flight. The young woman kinda... doesn't even pause as they come upon the ruined scene, biting her lower lip. "Geeez," says Megan then, kinda glancing from the ruins of the stores over towards Tabitha again. Pixie was fast - especially while flying. And she starts picking up her pace after Tabitha calls to her. "Have you ever seen anything like this, Tabitha?" asks the Pixie of her, glancing down to her companion of the moment as she flits along.

"She's hell of strong, and wants to hurt people. Worse than me on my period," Tabitha remarks, now trying to keep pace with Pixie, nearly stumbling over some broken glass underfoot, she looked up. "Dag. You got the most adorable powers ever. Have you ever thought about merchandising possibilities?" But Tabitha's consideration of profits and finder's fees was quickly interrupted as the two found themselves face to face with Agony's next target.

Hurtling through the air, literally screaming, the flaming Symbiote latches onto the ceiling with oily black fibers before making a final swing... straight into a fountain. Head first.

Water splashes out of the massive stone pool beneath the fountain head, an ornate structure resembling a cupid firing an arrow toward a snake wound about a tree. Water flies all over the steel and wood furniture and the marble floor nearby, making for a slippery surface upon which fleeing customers could potentially fall. In fact, one man does... but regains his balance mid-stumble only to scramble away. The screaming of fleeing throngs mingles with the entirely inappropriate ambient music to make for one hell of a noise.

Moments later, the form of the Symbiote's host emerges from the pool - half covered by its alien costume - snarling in a mix of fury and anguish. Gasping for air, she clutches at the marble siding and attempts to pull herself up while eyeing the panicked people who run right by.

Megan Gwynn kinda squares her jaw as they near the fountain. "I... well. I'm kinda busy with school, and you know... the whole... mutant destroying a mall thing?" says Pixie, kinda dipping her head as she swoops low to the ground, looking towards the fountain as... It wasn't the monster that came out, but the woman who controlled it. Pixie comes to a mid-air stop, pursing her lips as she widens her black bug eyes at Agony. Or rather, the host of the same. "Hey," says Pixie, her voice kinda low as she draws nearer to the woman. A beat - just a beat - of hesitation, and she's moving closer and closer. Within arm's reach, maybe. "...are you okay? Do you got it?" she asks, glancing down to the shifting symbiote, before she turns her eyes back up to the woman's face. Sticking a hand behind her back, she clutches her fingers - a soul dagger shimmering into view between them, a jagged piece of light.

Tabitha skittered to a stop, somehow managing to avoid getting splashed by the fountain. "Holy mahogany," she said in an out-of-character, low tone. Tabitha hung back for a moment, watching what her new winged friend was up to. She ate another french fry and wish she'd remembered to grab some ketchup.

"...I..." The woman replies to the hovering mutant, voice wavering and with a hint of the monstrosity within tainting it. She pulls herself up to her knees, black hair drenched and dripping water as the oily black costume begins to slowly manifest again starting at her feet. "...I... What...?"

She clutches her head again suddenly, bowing over, as licking black tendrils sprout once more. "Do... I.... WHAT?!"

An eruption of alien mass bursts forth from her flesh again and the alien Symbioted howls before baring its teeth at her. "DO NOT INSULT US! WE ARE IN CONTROL!" ... And then taking a swing at her with a tar black tendril in attempt to capture her.  Vera Verity has disconnected.

It was Megan's fault, really, for drawing so close. Pixie - the instant that scary voice comes out, was darting for the ceiling - when that tendril lashes out to whip around her, pinning one arm and both her wings to her sides, Pixie raising the hand bearing the souldagger free and high. "Aaaaaaaaa!" Yes, that was a scream - a shriek really, loaded with terror and all sorts of other things. Megan does not hesitate too long. The young woman attempts to bring the dagger down upon the symbiote's skull, her eyes wild as she does so.

Tabitha had had enough with trying to appeal to this lady's human side. Okay, she hadn't exactly tried, but Pixie did... kinda... It didn't matter now, because Pixie was now under attack.

"You have a lot to learn about making friends!" Tabitha scolded, and prepared to throw a bunch of time-bombs at Agony--but before she could do so, a burly, fleeing bystander bumped into her on his mad race to the mall's exit about fifty feet away. Falling against the outer wall of _Victoria's Secret_, Tabitha shouted: "So does that guy!"

"YOU WILL DIE FOR MAKING US...!!!" The alien-hybrid screamed its fury at the swiftly approaching Pixie being reeled in by its tendril. Only to be cut off by something.

PAIN.

Being used to being practically invulnerable, and in no way cognizant of magic, Agony made absolutely no attempt to dodge the dagger. Jaw opened, teeth went wide, and Pixie may have very nearly seen the end of her life were it not for that little oversight. Instead, Pixie is flung away as the monster once again rages uncontrollably in place, the damage the dagger had done to its hosts nervous system driving it wild to the point that its host becomes momentarily visible again in its mad flailing.

Her shrill scream might have been enough to shatter glass. Leaping from the fountain, the Symbiote attempts to escape again only to fall and go rolling across the floor with a hiss.

By this time, the lights of police vehicles can be seen approaching in the distance and the wailing of sirens is quick to follow...

A wild stab into the mouth of the beast, and Pixie soon finds herself flung. Trying to unfurl her wings as she goes, she gives a few half-hearted flaps before her diminutive body slaps against the side of the building. "Don't!" Pixie calls out, her voice sharp and cutting off a bit - giving her head a bit of a shake. "Don't... bomb her!" calls Megan out to Tabitha, the young woman starting to blink her eyes as she shivers a moment, lifting up her head as she lifts her eyes up towards the ceiling.

The police. While Pixie tended to trust the boys in blue, with all the trouble here, if Agony got away - she could only guess who they would blame for the chaos. Managing to pull herself to her feet, Pixie grits her teeth. "Don't bomb her, Tabby!" she calls out, taking off to lift up again. This time, she would swoop over the symbiote, and the sparkle trail behind her would kinda... get puffier, almost to the point of being a cloud of sweet-smelling sparkles. The symbiote had expelled the body wash, so it could probably do the same to the toxin that was her pixie dust. But Megan had to try.


 * FLASH!* -- "Mozzarella!" shouts Tabby, as she snaps pictures of Agony with her iPhone, trying to catch her host's face in the process. Then Tabitha turns the phone to grab some some shots of Pixie, who she cheers on like she just scored a game-winning kick in a soccer match. "Yeah, baby! Your blade of Mordor done sent her back to Luchador school!"

With the police's incoming arrival, the massive assembling crowd of gawkers, the broken glass and water everywhere, Tabitha smiled awkwardly. "Heh, heh. Catch ya round, Twinkie-belle!" and she made a mad dash to leave the scene. Dealing with the police was a real drag, she thought.

The alien-hybrid struggles to push herself off the marble tile, human host visible struggling under the weight of tremendous pain while her Symbiote continues to flail. Every moment or so, the living costume can be seen trying to reattach itself... but for the moment it seems to be unable. Instead it just oozes off again.

Compounding her struggles is the dust that comes floating down only to be inhaled a moment later. She gives in to a coughing fit, only to collapse again and spasm on the floor in ball in a shallow pool of water.

No sooner does Tabitha depart and the boys in blue burst in the doorway, sweeping guns around before finally training them on the obviously dangerous-looking alien on the floor. "Get that thing in cuffs, now." "...That person?" "...Thing. How are we supposed to restrain that?"

"Just do it, damn it!" the one in charge seems a touch irate, before casting is gaze wide at the broken surroundings. "Damn... better call S.H.I.E.L.D. I think I've seen this thing on a flier."