2015.03.16 - Ice, Stars, Speed, and More

Hell's Kitchen is a rough part of New York. Usually people keep their heads down, try to remain unnoticed. The people making a scene in the middle of the street? Not so much. At a glance it's hard to tell what they're making a hubbub about, as they aren't carrying signs. But listening in reveals the answer.

"MUTIES DISAPPEAR!" is one of the chants going through the crowd. The angry mob is yelling at a smaller group of people, some clearly mutants. One of them, a young woman in a short party dress, steps forward. "Now stop!" she snaps, her voice ringing with a Southern accent. Her silver hair shakes with her movements. One of the anti-mutant group throws a rock.

THat's when everything goes to chaos. The air around the silver haired woman grows deathy cold, and icicles form around her, A couple of her fellows take battle stances.

"Anti-mutant riot in Hell's Kitchen," Cap murmurs into his comlink as he rounds the corner on his bike to see...that scene. He's not even sure who started it, but he'd lay bets on the mob with bigoted placards. He particularly loves "Muties go home" - where exactly are they supposed to go home to? Genosha, maybe? He hasn't actually stepped in yet, skidding the bike to a halt and regarding the scene with narrowed eyes. Quick assessment...

Not on a comlink or a cool bike, Axiom's been traveling by rooftop. When he comes across chaos happening. "Oh that does not look good..." the costumed teen trails off. He scans the crowd below and sighs when he notices the group of bigots. "M-more of these guys?" he mutters. And then he spots Cap and perks up. Still a fanboy. "Better get down there," Axiom murmurs to himself, starting to head down the fire escape.

Wally West moves into action at the first mention of the event hitting the news. The Flash is soon on the scene concerning himself first with clearing the area of any innocent by standers he moves back and forth fromt he area carrying civilainst and lookilus out of the immideiate area of the coming scurmish.

Some of the bigots scatter as soon as their targets start to fight back. The silver haired woman pelts some of the remaining with large chuncks of ice. It's clear that she's not trying to go easy on them. "Not s ice when you're the ones being victimized!" she yells, showing the street with a rain of ice. Behind her, some of the mutants are also running away, not wanting a fight. The ones who remain fight back, with one seeming to split into two copies of himself, while another picks up a bench and tosses it clumsily.

Okay. Which side...let's break this up, Captain America thinks. On the one hand, the bigots started it. On the other hand, they're overmatched. He runs into the riot, shield raised to protect him from anything nasty...like that bench. Or, more to the point, somebody's got a gun. He whirls to take the bullet on his shield.

"Oh man," Axiom gasps when he sees all the things thrown and hears that gunshot. Rather than taking the ladder down, Axiom vaults over the railing. He's not as skilled as Cap but the kid's got moves enough to roll with the fall and spring forward as soon as he's on his feet. He goes right for the man with the gun, aiming to disarm him with a quick bit of Asgardian martial arts. "Alright, everyone calm down please!"

The Flash runs inbetween the protesters and the Ice powered mutant catching and whipping back the chunks of ice she is hurling. "hey Hey Killer Frost number 21, chill out. Chillax. Look You got me and taht's captain america over there. the situation is about to be handled I know you are angry but attacking them only mkaes you look like the bully it makes them right"

The Flash then looks to see the anti-mutant group is at least partially armed and using guns the flash runs through the crossfire knocking down bullets. "Stop hold your fire thats a justice league order!"

The appearance of costumed heroes causes both sides to momentarily pause. "Is that Captain America?!" "Isn't he like 90...?" "Holy crap, it's the Flash! He really is that fast!" The guy who got hit by Axiom rubs his head. "And who are you? Captain Tightpants?"

On the mutant side, the duplicator mutant snaps back into a single body, looking at the bigots nervously. The strong guy cracks his knuckles, looking like he's daring the bigots to start things again. The ice woman looks flustered, but keeps up her icicles. She looks angry, but also very fearful. "Who are you, why are you helping these, these cruel humans?"

Cap swings his shield one last time, sending another gun flying. "Actually, I was just breaking it up." Note, he didn't attack any of the mutants. This time. Or maybe yet. Yet might be the best answer to that.

Axiom just sighs at the question, giving the man a frown. "R-really? I'm Axiom..." trails off. "Cap's right!" he chimes in. "We were just breaking up the f-f-fight," he adds. "Bullets and ice flying around aren't g-g-going to help anyone."

The Flash keeps sending the icicles back and knocking bullets down. "I'm helping you! I'm helping your kind. injuring them does you no good it does mutant kind no good. they may be ignorant and small minded but that does not deserve a death sentence. Get a hold of yoruself you can't do this! using force using superpowers proves their point!"

"...I want Cap's autograph..." "Oh for crying out loud, he's a mutie!" "No he isn't!" "...Sorry about the Tightpants comment." was directed at Axiom. One of the bigots speaks up; he seems to be the leader of the group. "You can't trust muties! Turn your back on them, and they'll stick ya!"

"Well maybe if y'all didn;t beat us down, beat us up, and try an; lynch us, maybe we wouldn't be so happy to get even!" yells the ice mutant. Her compainions nods in agreement.

"Maybe if you went back to where you belon-"

"WE ain;t go no where!"

Cap is blocking bullets and icicles with equal measure. "Given I suspect all of these mutants are, in fact, US citizens, where exactly would you send them back to?" He's not going to let the mutants shoot them up, but he's clearly not happy.

"Its okay. Just don't try to shoot anyone anymore and stop the hateful stuff," Axiom replies, using his armored arm to block more ice. "Put the guns down and stop shooting!" he demands of one of the bigots. "And please stop throwing ice!" he calls to Mab, frowning a little. The yelling back and forth gets a little sigh. "Hey, just because one or two -people- have been jerks and stabbed you in the back d-d-doesn't give you the right to paint a whole group that way," he speaks up as well. "And revenge is not the way to go either."

Flash gets mad and then runs through the crowd disarming them leaving all the guns he find in pieces gathered up in a neat pile. "Stop it! Cap block elsa from letting it go."

"Look at yourselves how stupid can you be, you revile her because she's different but then you want to ask Captain Amercia for his autograph why? because he got his powers through an experiment, You love superman you, You love the Flash, What is the difference between me and Her? Between Cap, and her? Because she was born with it? why does that change anything! Thor was born with his powers, superman wonder woman Zatanna! so many famous beloved heroes with power unimaginable but you embrace us! how dare you embrace us and reject them how dare any of you. If you hate mutants you Hate the Flash if you hate mutants YOU HATE HEROES"

Cap nods briefly to the Flash. Wally gets it. Perhaps not in the most eloquent way, but he gets how ridiculous things are.

Flash's simpromtu speech makes the bigots pause. Some of them murmur between themselves. "Ain't Superman an alien or something? Like, last of his people?" "Cap's loyal to the US, a soldier first..." "But he's got a point, I mean.... don't he?" "They;re registered, right?" "Batman isn;t!" "...Are *you* gonna argue with the Bat?" The leader looks around, glaring. It was clear he hated mutants, but it was hard to argue with superheroes.

For their part, the mutants slowly back down. The ice woman lets her icicles fall harmlessly to the ground, and the air starts to warm up again. "Nobosy gives us any chance!" she says looking at the bigots, still with anger. The strong mutant stomps his foot. "Right, so why should we give these jerks a chance?!" The ice woman holds out her hand. "Calm down Granite."

"Because people can actually change." As they start to stand down, Captain America begins to relax. "Sometimes it's hard work, but it's always possible.

The Flash's speech gets Axiom staring for a moment. His head tilts to the side and he gives a faint nod. Sure the speedster has a point but Axiom would have left the speeches to Cap. "Cap's right again. People change. And we c-can all start by giving one another a chance."

"The point is that you accept Aliens, Government created super soldier, Billioniares using obscenely expensive technology to enchance themselves, Gods, beings greated and empowered by the gods, people pborn with magical abilities, People that get powers from accidents and sometimes not so accidental accidents, but people, human beings born with super powers that manifest with puberty people that didn't chose it and have to deal with this change at the most pivital point in their lives and you chose them to hate them to opress them to be cruel to. and News Flash some of the superheroes you love are mutants, What is a Metahuman but a mutant by another name." The Flash says loudly to the assembled people. "Wait what what are you 2 talking about giving her another chance. don't get me wrong she shouldn't be using her superpowers on none powered people but she was attacked they had guns. She hasn't done anything wrong. she just needed to be talked down and calmed."

The mutants actually smile. The duplicator grins, and gives Flash a thumbs up. "CVaan you be my personal hero now, dude?" Granite, the strong one, laughs. "C'mon Split-Leverl, he don't have time to be anyone's personal hero. Man's got a job, ya know. Right Mab?" The ice woman shrugs. "Heroes don't do what they do for pay." she says quietly. "They do it because they're meant to be protectors..."

The bigots also seem moved, looking around, and a bit shamed. "...I do think Wonder Woman is hot." "Dude, she's literally an Amazon. No shame there." There's more mumurings - before the leader goes red in the face. "All of you are idiots! Mutants ain't human, that's why they don't belong!" He picks up a chunk of ice - and hurls it at Mab.

Captain America whirls to try and intercept the thrown ice with a quick, smooth swing of his shield. He's so casual about it that it might well betray JUSt how practiced he is.

"Wait...that...." Axiom trails off after listening to Flash. He gives the older hero an odd look, quietly wondering if his brain moved too fast for his mouth but shaking it off. Of course as soon as the ice is thrown, Axiom's in motion. He sees Cap has the projectile handled so Axiom moves to pull another quick martial arts move to grab the leader's arm so he can push him down onto the pavement and hold him there by the arm.

"news flash perv, Wonder woman she's ain't human either, you already know Superman ain't. I bet you have some pervy thoughts about power girl. Well she's an alien. Look either you are going to be totally small minded and xenophobic or you are going make peace with the fact that your mutant hate is stupid and unreasonable. you aren't going to make excuses for us we aren't the good ones we aren't going to be your uncle toms, there is no good ones, if you are going to hate them for being different then you are going to hate all of us" The Flash says. resisting the urge to brag about his significant other as he mentions her.

He then looks at Mab and her crew, "Mutants stand down this is not your fight anymore. you've done nothing wrong let us handle this. I promise from now on I will make an effort to supportt he mutant community, and I will urge the league to make it a priority. "

Well, at least the bigot leader will be able to brag that he got taken down by two superheroes. There were B-list villians who didn;t get that! The rest of the group wisely shuts up, looking rather meek now. The pervvy guy stammers soimething about curves before being shushed.

Mab, Granite, and Split-Level smile, although they still seem jumpy. "Hey, Mab? You okay?" She nods weakly. "Yeah, I... Sorry, this is all my fault. I can;t help but overreact when - " "Hey, don;t worry. We;re the same, remember?" Mab looks at Flash. "Thank you kindly." She curties to Flash, and then to Captain and Axion. "All of y'all... It's... Very few are so kind as you..."

"Okay. Let's disperse this, now. Otherwise I'll call the cops to start rounding people up." The authoritative voice...and the demonstration that this is, indeed, the real Captain America should do something to speed that up.

"What do you w-want me to do with this guy, Cap?" Axiom asks, nodding down to the man he's got pinned. He's being careful not to make the hold painful but its pretty clear he could.

Wally goes around and zip ties all the protestors and leaves them in a group to be picked up by the police, "and let the officers know all their guns are over there in pieces you can get prints off them and make sure each of them have permits for them and by the way firing your weapon at civilians is a crime! no dispersing no getting away"

There are some grumbles, but honestly, the bigots are beaten and humilated. They'll behave now. As for the mutants? They're scared of the idea of being arrested - rumors say mutants don;t always come back. So, while the heroes are busy, they flee the scene.

"He..." And then Wally does that. "Did it occur to you for one moment, Flash, that I might have been letting them go for a reason?" The mutants are, at least, sneaking away.

Axiom sighs and moves to stand by Captain America. He gives Flash a slightly exasperated look though. "Are you alright, Flash? Y-you've been acting...really weird this whole time," he says, concerned.

"And what reason is that Cap' what reason do you hsve for letting them go after commiting assualt with a fire arm and a hate crime" Waly say with a snear at the gaul of it. Then Wally rolls his eyes as he chases after the mutants and gets in front of them holding zip ties. "In the interest of fairness I have to arrest you too. But I'm not leaving you to the human police because I know that even though you were acting in selfdefense I've heard some of the horror stories. What happpens to mutant that get arrested." the Flash looks over to Captain America. "I'M TALKING THEM IN ON KUSTICE LEAGUE AUTHORITY THESE MUTANTS ARE A LEAGUE ISSUE NOW"

"I'm fine Axiom. I just I don't like racists and bigots I don't like people who hate those different from them. I don't like bullies" The Flash says in a stern tone.

While Axiom, Flash, and Captain America are debating over the bigot, the mutants quietly sneak away, before the police can show up. Of course, the heroes know what they look like, so they might have to hide for a while...

Axiom just gives a skeptical look. "Alright...umm...m-m-maybe get a League doctor to check you out anyway. You're -definitely- acting off..." he trails off to Flash. There's a chime from Axiom's belt and he glances at his com. "Oh man...more hero work to do. It was g-good working with you guys again," he says, starting to jog towards the nearest fire escape so he can get up and out of there.