2014.08.04 - Of Gods and Men: Why a mall?


 * reason=strong language

The Stanton Island mall is huge, with 5 different zones on two levels and dozens of stores on each level. Andrea is here mostly for window shopping, but she really does need to get some new clothes after her last set were damaged by a rocket blast...and she needs some school supplies.

So she was in the Game Stop when the shots rang out and the screaming started. Somehow, that was too realistic for a video game effect. She decided she better check into it. She headed through the crowds running away to find out what is going on. Ah, yes. The occupational hazard...damaged clothes. That's not Marissa's concern when the screaming starts. She's in an electronics store, picking up some odd bits and pieces. Or was. Oh great. As people start to panic, she stays behind the glass for a moment, then ducks back out, going against the flow to investigate. Because she does things like that. Because she's, just a bit, "crazy."

Crowded malls are just a fertile hunting grounds for pockets to pick, which is why Kiden makes the occasional venture into the area. Sure it has lots of the kind of people she specifically can't stand, but it's all the more reason to mark them as a favorite target. Navigating the crowded walkways, she accidentally bumps into a woman there, and man here, and her fingers surreptitiously weave in and out of pockets and purses to increase Kiden's earning. For bonus, there's also a restocking on cigarettes, which is kind of a bummer to get on her own properly at her age.

But then there are shots. Shots are never good. Heck, a shot almost ended her life before god finally decided to give her something back to balance all the crap she has to deal with. Dipping her hands into the pockets of her track pants, she leisurely starts to walk in the direction of the sound of the gunfire. Almost as if she thinks someone was playing a movie really loud, rather than a real danger being present.

The shots Andrea hears are coming from the mall entrance near the Sears store. There could be others farther away, but that is where she heads...after a quick stop to drop her street clothing in an out of the way spot, this time she has her Xavier school danger room suit on under, so hopefully her clothes will not be destroyed.

She stretches her neck up about five feet so she can see over the crowd. What she sees does not look good, about half a dozen armed men in some kind of uniform, one that looks like the ones she saw when she was fighting outside Stark Tower. Well, hopefully they only have guns, bullets she can handle...

It takes Mend a bit longer to get there...a quick duck to one side to change and grab her stuff. Including the flashbangs, one of which is actually in her hand as she runs towards the entrance. Shots and people running and...oh. It's those guys. She saw video footage, that's all, but it's enough to know it's the same group...crap.

Kiden is moving so leisurely, she's probably the last to get to the Sears store area, though upon seeing those 6 or so guys in uniforms and guns, she shakes her head, "what kind of sloppyass gang are you to show up at a mall in freakin' matching outfits, like the girl scouts, you after the latest Sears sale? I'm pretty sure they hadn't run out of bikinis, so all o' ya should be good." She's standing right there in the open, not even attempting to get into cover.

the fact that there are six in the open means either there are more somewhere, or this is some kins of distraction, that is Andrea's conclusion. She reaches to the roof, some twenty feet overhead, and grabs onto a beam. She pulls herself up, going from tall and skinny to short and VERY round as she inflates herself.

She bounces down like a giant basketball and slams into the middle of the group of armed men. Not doing a bunch of damage, since her mass is a bit diffuse, but sure providing a distraction.

Okay. No flashbang...it would hit Andrea. Instead, Mend circles to one side of the guys, trying to put herself where one of them might dodge to get away from Elastic Girl there. Neat powerset, that, she can't help but note, but mostly she's looking for an opportunity to play Punch A Terrorist.

Kiden starts walking towards the guys with the weapons, that is until Elastique drops down surprisingly from the roof. "Wow," Kiden comments, not having expected that, for a moment distracted from taunting the goons. At least they were spared of Kiden's mouth for the time being.

The goon nearest Kiden squeezes off a burst in her direction even as he is knocked off his feet. The goons are professionals, they scatter away from the attack and are all on their feet in a moment. Only half of then turn towards the center, the other half face outwards in a triangle. One of them tries a burst at Elastique, but the bullets simply sink in then drop harmlessly to the floor.

Elastique compresses herself, then springs outward in a line, slamming one of the goons into a solid wall. One of the goons has decided that is guns do not works something else may, and draws a knife out of a boot.

And Mend...sees an opportunity to toss a flashbang. Andrea's looking away...and she's pretty sure elastic girl won't be extra-vulnerable. The flashbang is thrown, the girl shielding her eyes before lunging forward with intent to beat them up before they can recover.

Kiden strangely doesn't seem to be affected by the shot, unless of course the man shooting at her missed entirely, she just keeps walking towards him with a grin on her face, "you can't..." but then comes the flashbang, and she drops to the ground, rolling, "fuck!" She wasn't expecting to be hit by the flashbang one bit, but then when the flashbang clears...Kiden isn't even there. Weird.

As soon as the one looking her direction sees something being thrown by Mend, her opens fire with a burst from his weapon. Fortunately the bang throws off his aim, most probably miss him. The ones facing Elastique take the flash directly, being momentarily blinded.

The Bang does not hurt Andrea, but it does break her concentration. She loses pressure and falls like an empty balloon to the floor.

Marissa Sometimes drops and rolls beneath the shots, coming up with a flurry of blows. But crap...Kiden. She has no clue what happened there, but it's not going to look good for her. Probably, the woman teleported out, but...no. An ordinary flashbang wouldn't do that.

Andrea takes advantage of her position to wrap round the three mercenaries facing her, then slams them together as hard as she can. Unfortunately her leverage is not great in this form, all she does is bruise them a bit, but being wrapped like a strait jacket makes then unable to attack well.

Marissa Sometimes whirls towards the two who are still standing, striking right now to remove their guns from the equation if she can. She'll definitely worry about Kiden later, and Andrea seems to be okay, albeit slightly occupied right now. Andrea tries to think...what can she do without releasing these guys to take them out of the equation? She has two arms and one leg occupied, but that still leaves another leg and her torso. She forms her body into a pneumatic piston with the leg as the rod, then ups the air pressure so she rises upward, carrying the three men up to the 20 foot ceiling. She suddenly retracts herself and slams the trio into the floor.

One of the goons tosses a cylindrical object towards Marissa as she heads towards them. It starts releasing a pale gray gas or mist. The other one taps a button on an earpiece and says, "Situation Delta." Marissa strikes the pair and manages to get the gun away from the one who tossed the gas grenade, the other one manages to retain his.

Marissa Sometimes narrows her eyes, and then yells, "Up!" What is that supposed to mean? Well, except that she's taking her own advice, leaping towards the escalator that leads upwards. And away from the goons - which was, no doubt, their ultimate intent. Distract the heroes.

Andrea has a lot more surface area than most at the moment, as this gas is absorbed through the skin, she collapses to the floor like a puddle before turning back into an ordinary teenage girl.

The two remaining Mercenaries chomp down on a hollow tooth containing an antidote for the poison gas. The one who is still armed with a gun fires a burst after Marissa.

Which doesn't entirely miss...a couple of bullets slam into her arm. Left handed, she retaliates by tossing a knife down at him, into the gas. Great. Now she has to rescue Andrea...which means she can't let them kill her. The civs are clear, but *Andrea* isn't. Mend? She's starting to get kinda mad.

The knife is thrown and seems fairly accurate, it strikes the mercenary in the shoulder, it does not seem to penetrate, possibly he is wearing a Kevlar vest. He does have the gun go off facing the wrong way, shattering a display window. The Second Mercenary pulls out a knife from his boot and seems to be headed towards Andrea. Possibly he intends to hold the young mutant hostage.

Great. Brilliant. If she goes into the gas, she'll be knocked out. Which means they might do more than just get away...they might kidnap her and Andrea. She still has her bag...and she tugs at it, securing it around her shoulders. Oh, right. Jetpack. Then she's airborne. That puts her above the curling, swirling gas. She'll have to use the climate control to dissipate it.

Marissa takes to the air, having to be careful due to the limited flight distances inside the mall. It should be possible to do something.

The Gunman can not get a bead on the flying Marissa, but the other one will grab Andrea imminently...

...and Marissa drops, doing her best to kick both of them in the head without getting too much contact with the gas. Falling out of the sky would be embarrassing. Setting fire to something while doing it? That would be worse... Marissa accelerates, then turns as she dives so as to kick...and so her exhaust pushes the gas back. She manages to hit the one almost on Andrea, but the last gunman (clearly a superior merc) manages to dodge. His bluetooth lights up distracting him...

Marissa Sometimes spins in the air to try and nail him again while he's distracted. She'll worry about getting Andrea out of the gas once they're down. Fortunately the mercenary's distraction was enough, Marissa is able to knock him out, though she realizes after that he has bruised herself from hitting things while flying that fast. She needs some reinforced and padded gloves and boots or something...with bracing to keep herself from breaking her bones if she gets too fast...

Yeah. Something to bear in mind. For now, Mend's trying to use the blast from the jet to clear enough gas space to drop, grab Andrea, and drag her out of there...off to somewhere she can sleep off the gas.

Marissa manages to grab the young blonde and pull her out of the gas. She hears sirens in the distance, it seems likely the police will be here soon to deal with the mercenaries. Probably it would be best if they did not find either of the mutants here.

Marissa's not worried about the cops. As the gas dissipates, she checks the fallen goons for the antidote. They're probably carrying extra in case they need it. it takes a minute, but she does find some red capsules containing a liquid. Unless those are poison, they are probably the antidote.

Easy way...Mend tests one of them by taking it herself. When it doesn't kill her, she moves to wake Andrea up. That was almost embarrassing...but she got them in the end so, she supposes, that's what matters.

Andrea wakes up and groans, "Oh my head." She sees Marissa near her and realizes she is still at the mall, "I guess we won?"

"Yeah, we did. Are you alright?" She offers Andrea a hand up. "Other than post stun gas headache, that is." It's her left hand...she's favoring the right.

Andrea says, "I think my teacher would prefer if I do not talk to the cops today. Thank you for the help."

Marissa Sometimes nods. "I'll deal with the cops...you get out of here." She flickers a grin. "Thank you. You helped a lot." Which she did, even if she did get gassed.

Andrea flinches a bit from pain as she concentrates to turn her power back on, then stretches and pulls herself out of sight. Once out of sight she recovers her clothing and dresses back in her street clothing. She can easily mingle with the crowds. Somehow she does not think she will get here shopping done here though.