2013.06.07 - Metriculation

METRICULATION

"God will not look you over for medals, degrees, or diplomas, but for scars." - Elbert Hubbard

Forest Hills, Queens, New York

Peter Parker sits at the family table with a laptop as his Aunt May is chopping vegetables for breakfast. An over the shoulder view shows Peter is busy looking at websites for eateries in Metropolis. He lets out a heavy sigh, brings his fingers up to rub his eyes, and sits back in his chair.

"Peter, I've told you I don't know how many times," repeats May for the 13th time. "You're too worried about paying for college. You'll get the MU scholarship, honey. And there are always loans."

"Loans are how we got here, Aunt May." The kitchen table is covered with notices of foreclosure and offers for Loan Consolidation and information regarding short sales.

"Do you have everything you need for graduation?"

Peter nods, "Yeah. Blue tie or red tie? Suit or no suit? Too hot for a suit under the gown, right?"

"Red tie, no suit," May responds. "Did you want to go out for lunch afterwards?"

"Sure, do-Peter stops abruptly. "No, I can't, I've got an assignment for the Bugle and after that I'm catching a movie with Illyana."

The second part is a lie. Peter slides his camera case into his backpack atop a very different suit.

*****

Midtown, Manhattan

Students shuffle into the auditorium, which unlike most schools has a decently working air conditioner. Midtown Science Magnet, of course, is one of those newfangled ideas from modern educational researchers that obtained a lot of cash from the state government as an invite-only school for the gifted in the areas of mathematics and science.

Or, it was a place where rich people could buy their sons and daughters placement into.

"You ready to be done with this?" Harry asks Peter As fate would have it, their last names have them sitting next to each other.

"Which one? School or four hours of boredom?" Peter responds.

"Pick one."

Peter leans forward a bit so he can look back over his shoulder. He gives a smile and a nod to Gwen Stacy, but is interrupted mid effort by the annoying, hulky voice of Flash Thompson.

"Hey Parker. Nice gown. It looks like your grandma's," the buffoon says.

"Flash, we're all wearing gowns, you idiot," says Gwen as she reaches behind two people to slap the oaf in the back of the head.

"Ow Gwen!"

Down to the left, Jessica Jones sits looking across the row at Peter Parker.

*****

"Harold. Osborn," says the disembodied voice over the PA speakers. Peter's next in line and after the long speeches about things that no one cares about, he just wants to be done.

A slight, passing shadow flickers past the tall glass, half-walls that reach up and make the top half of the face wall of the auditorium.

Just before the glass breaks, Peter's Spidey-sense starts going haywire. By the time the glass showers down upon the stage like a hail storm, Peter's already running back to his seat. There, underneath the bolted down chair, is the navy blue backpack that Peter brought with him.

Meanwhile, a gigantic sandstorm begins to fill the auditorium, causing the students and parents to shield their eyes. Screams erupt from all over the large room, and a blue crackle of electricity kills the lights, causing even more shrieking.

Meanwhile, the rest of the top half of the wall explodes when a gigantic tentacle arm of metal design breaks through. That arm and another reach through and down onto a stage, as DOCTOR OCTOPUS leapfrogs into the room. A third arm knocks the principal out of the way, while the fourth grabs Harry Osborn by the chest.

There are glib remarks or clever phrases. Instead, the villain goes out just the way he came, and within moments is on to one of the busiest streets in Metropolis.

Given that Captain Stacy's daughter is a student at Midtown Magnet, it's clear to see why the cops have reacted so quickly. A column 3 squadcars wide and 6 deep is making its way down towards Midtown and meets Octopus head on.

The Doctor stops on two mechanical legs and straightens himself to full height. Harry Osborn dangles in the grip of one of the others.

There's a brief pause before a guttural grunt can be heard over the streets that have gone incredibly quiet.

A huge monstrosity steps out into the sunlight. With skin like rock and size like a mountain, RHINO nearly blocks out the sun. He gives a nod to Octavius, digs his foot down into the pavement, and then begins running straight for the squad cars.

When he hits them, there is the terrible sound of screeching when metal tears away from metal and slides against other metal. From our bird's eye view, it is clear now what the plan seems to be. Octavius and others are kidnapping Osborn. Apparently for ransom.

Suddenly, going 'out to dinner with family' is something that is looked forward to. There's something of a normalcy of it that hadn't been truly appreciated until, well.. there was family. As strange as it is, as complicated as it is? It's still family.

Emerging from one of the less swanky and more.. academic-leaning places (okay, a more upscale burger joint.. but a burger joint all the same!) comes three of the ever growing 'Wagner clan', even if Amanda isn't technically a 'Wagner'. She is still family. Kurt is carrying multiple bags of take out, several bags in hand, leaving his tail free. Just in case it bothered peoples' delicate sensibilities that food was being carried with a tail!

Turning the corner with the girls, then, hoping to avoid the rush of the graduates out of the hall (they still have time!), Kurt catches the sirens of the police cars as they dodge traffic trying to get...

Where they are.

Yes.

"Oh.. mein Gott.."

Keith O'Neil was out and about, taking in the nice day and getting more practice with his illusions. He was walking in the guise of an older man, in his 50s... it was a reasonably good disguise. Even if the man ended up looking like a Dick Tracy reject, down to the trenchcoat and the square jaw.

It was working well, however. Nobody was giving him sidelong glances as they usually would, and he found that keeping up the illusion got easier the more he practiced. For a mild celebration, he decided to stop by one of the hot dog carts and buy himself a weenie. That's before Doc Oc and company decided to pay a visit to this street. There are sirens, the screeching of metal, and the deadly silence of stunned passersby. Keith is pretty darned stunned himself, so much so that his illusion instantly vanishes, leaving the purple feline visible to the naked eye, hot dog falling out of his hands.

"... well, that's something you don't see every day," says Vorpal, as he snaps himself out of his stupor to take in the scene and see how he can act...

With all that noise, and all that chaos, who would notice if there's just a little extra in the background?

Maybe it's a flash of light. Maybe its a rainbow that appears almost to extend to the ground a distance away. Maybe a portal appears.

But what ever happens, when compared to the chaos at the school with all of those villains, it is easily over looked.

Still, as that effect fades, what ever it is, a girl in green carrying a hammer and a red white and blue shield is standing there, looking momentarily disoriented, and a bit lost.

Still, what ever happened, she's trying not to think about. Not as she hears those other sounds. Heck, she slowly starts to turn as she hears the sirens as well, before she jumps, and starts to /FLY/ towards the source of the trouble.

Yes, Sarah Rogers a.k.a. The Crusader may have literally just arrived. And yes she may have had not one, but two things happen that she never expected, but she still knows what trouble sounds like. And if this is /AN EARTH/ then she has to help.

Amanda doesn't need to be a Wagner to be part of Kurt's family. She's known him longer than just about anyone else. And she understands all too well the meaning of the phrase 'It's complicated', when applied to family. Still, it should be a pleasant meal, sitting with Kurt and TJ over burgers. It seems life may actually slow down for a moment or two...

Or not.

Sirens blare, supervillains show up on the street, people scream and run.

And the witch curses in Romani. She mutters a spell and a small portal opens. Beyond it is her kitchen table. "Kurt," she says. "Lunch. There." All he has to do is put his hand through. Then he can bamf off to play hero. No sense wasting good burgers, right?

And then, it's a spell to ripple her clothing from streetwear into combat leathers and she's airborne, rising up to get the bird's eye overview on the chaos. "I'll try and get the civilians to safety," she tells her blue companions. "You run interference." As always.

"And I grabbed his gun and smashed it into his face, then kicked him away from the hostage," Miles Morales is saying, somewhat quietly, to the slightly overweight Asian boy walking beside him as they make their way towards a movie theatre. "I didn't even know I could move that fast." Before Ganke, the boy beside him, can answer, chaos erupts from the school they're walking past. As other pedestrians scream and run, Ganke says to Miles, "Go, I'll be fine." Miles nods, turns, and runs quickly to find a place to make a quick change.

Well. There are days when it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. It would appear that coming out of the theatre with Blue and helping her and Trauma deal with a robbery, Channel wasn't going to get a break. She was going to go hang out with Jubilee tonight, and was running a bit late. That's when the police cars could be heard. Followed by the other sounds of metal on metal. Reaching into her bag, Channel pulls out her black mask to conceal her identity and moves to check out the destruction.

Where was Blue with her instant costume trick when she really needed it?

However, the sight that she sees is enough to drive her into action, scanning the area to see who was here. It was, so far, a lot of people she didn't recognize, along with Kurt and Amanda. She takes to the air as well and looks over at Amanda before she looks down at the mess.

Channel reaches out with her energy, first pulling in enough to charge up her physical abilities, then reaching out to take a stab at pulling away the kinetic energy that Rhino-Dude has going on for his run. Except she's not pulling all of it. Oh no. Channel is only pulling energy from Rhino-Dude's left leg, invisibly trying to cause his legs to move at different paces and send him stumbling and crashing into...something. Hopefully to hurt himself in the process.

It's nice, really it is. This timeline isn't all that complicatd! TJ could get used to it, even if that means leaving behind her actual reality. So far there hasn't been one single crisis demanding her attent--frig.

"Hey guys? Which one of us ordered the Rhino to go? Because I'm pretty sure it wasn't me. I just wouldn't have the stomach for it."

As if that's all of their problems. Sigh. "Glad we got some training time in yesterday." Weeding out some of the competition is always a good plan, and a guy that likes to charge things? Run interference, with emphasis on the run.

TJ suddenly looks focused.

"I think I can take this guy."

All she has to do is move out into a clearing and get his attention. Should be easy enough. "Hey, Greyscale! It's not polite to show off your horn in public!"

Will that be cash or credit? Charge it, man.

Restarting a life in a new world is not an easy thing, especially for someone that did not exactly have a life to start with. For the young man currently using the name Iron Spider one of the things that has made his new life a little easier to take is doing the whole hero thing, stopping crimes and patroling the city. He is at the top of a nice sized building doing a quick survey of the area when the attack on the Magnet High School starts.

Iron Spider takes a whole half second to think about his actions before backing up a little ways and taking a running leap off the top of the building. As he falls his arms streatch outwards and small flaps appear linking his arms sides and legs so that he can glide. The gliding keeps him from ending up moving so fast that he does not end up road pizza, but lets him move fast enough that it is gonna hurt if he hits someone, which is exactly what he intends to do. His target is Doc Ock. The crimson clad spider plans to hit him, both fists first, from behind planning once he hits him to use the man's back as something of a spring board to flip over the man and try and grab for his hostage.

Heinous! Just as Kurt and the Wagner ladies exit the restaurant a police car comes twirling through the air straight at them. They can even see the face of the police driver as it hurtles towards them (well, every so often anyways). The man in blue is looking a little green.

Passersby don't seem to be all that shocked by Keith's appearance because their minds are, understandably elsewhere. But Keith is able to sense something that the others are not. The street lights, that are not lit because this is mid-day, all begin to flickerflacker with power and light.

Channel's abilities invade Rhino's system and the trick works, momentarily. The Rhino's lengths become ragged and hobbily as his feet are moving in different directions. This changes, however, when from behind, Channel is lit up with a stream of energy that emanates from 15 of the different light posts and deposits a massive amount of energy right into her body.

The Crusader soars above the carnage and will see, straight below her, Rhino. He's now plunged through the squad cars, giving Dococ a free run down the middle of the road. And he seems to be staring down at a young, blue girl, who has wandered out into the road to confront him.

When Amanda gets airborne, she'll feel an odd sensation she may not have ever felt before. The air itself is heavy with particulate. Small rocks pelt her face, but not hard. It's only slightly sting-y as it hits, but she may want to close her eyes.

Patrick takes flight with the powers of his amazing Iron suit. The problem is that when he takes flight, a huge dust storm (the same thing Amanda is experiencing) seems to congregate around him, filling the gizmos with dust and making life difficult. He can see Doc Ock, his target, in the foreground, but he'll surely want to take care of this problem first.

Miles, presumably, comes out dressed for battle, but he may want to pay more immediate attention to the man trapped underneath the squad car in the foreground. The man is pinned and screaming like crazy.

Then, coming down from the rooftops, is that familiar red and blue clad hero everyone loves to love. Except for Jameson. He hates Spider-Man. But forget Jameson. He's taking a direct route towards Doctor Octopus and yelling at the top of his lungs with a quip from Back to the Future. "Hey you! Lay your damn hands off her. Or him. And I mean all of your hands, there, bucko!"

But just as he gets within striking distance, Spider-Man is unable-even with his Spidey-sense-to avoid both he shot from one of Oc's arms /and/ a blast of electricity from one of the remaining lamps. And if things couldn't be worse, as soon as he's hit the ground, he's enveloped by a mini-sandstorm that seems to come out of nowhere.

When the portal opens by Amanda for the burgers, Kurt divests himself of the extras.. for Blue and that other mutant that have now taken up residence. "Danke.."

And with his burden thus lifted, Kurt leaps straight into the air to avoid the police car, flipping up and over, landing atop the roof before he's off again in a mid-air *BAMF*, landing just near Doc Oc, ready to take hold of the hostage and 'port him out to safety.

Vorpal 's eyes widen as he takes in the chaos. Of course, capes come out of the woodwork-- and to quote someone, That's A Good Thing. But what's not a good thing is that there is more to this than meets the eye. He sees the strange sandstorm... and the flickering in the street lights.

There's more than just those two. Vorpal leaps on top of a parked car to get a better view. Realizing that there is some unseen force (for now) capable of targeting people, a curious thing happens as he suddenly jumps off the car and runs-- suddenly there are four of him running, as he creates a multiple illusion of himself spread out in a fifteen foot area. 'This should buy me at least some time...' he thinks, running towards Channel as he sees the lamp-posts firing at her. He's a little too far from her to summon up a construct that will serve as a barrier, so he runs as fast as he can to try and close that distance.

Does The Crusader recognize the blue girl? No. Not that she would from up above like that. But neither does she recognize Rhino either. Thus as he rushes towards said blue girl, the blond smiles.

That is before she puts her red, white, and blue shield right in front of her and she sort of falls, sort of flies right towards the 'thick skinned brute'.

All though as she does that, she also shouts something. Something that may be a bit important in case she misses.

"Get clear!"

Amanda's portal winks out of existence the moment Kurt's hand is withdrawn.

Above the fray, her eyes narrow as the particulates hit her face. She mutters another soft spell and her mage armour wraps her body, providing a skin-tight shield between her and the flying sand -- including a 'visor' of sorts over her face that acts as an excellent filter. Then, it's a second spell to snag that flying patrol car with a secondary shield that acts something like a stasis field before it gently drifts to the ground and settles safely. Shields, illusions, and healing magics are her specialties -- though she's a dab hand with a whole lot more than that. Her goal, however, is to protect the civilians. But, to do that, she needs to be able to see and the rushing sand, even though it no longer stings her eyes, will make that difficult. Which means containing it would be a good idea. She shoots up a little higher to get out of the worst of the dust in an effort to find its epicenter.

Where he made his change isn't apparent, but The Spider appears, sort of fading in as his camouflage drops mid-leap. He lands by the car with the screaming man and says, "It's ok, I've got you... I think." Let's not mention he's never tested his strength to know if he can lift a car, until now. It doesn't stop him from trying, and, indeed, he's a lot stronger than he thought he was.

Hey, the trick worked, and it slowed Rhino down. That was pretty awesome. Channel is preparing another move when suddenly she's feeling a whole lot of electricity start to surge through her body. Her immediate response is to open up and just launch a stream of electrical blasts straight up and away from anybody else, simply to keep herself from hitting an Overload. She couldn't keep this up for long, however, and the teen quickly scans for a source. A mind controling the electricity or a source of it or something of that nature. She's mostly focused on not being where she can hurt somebody if she were go explode at this particular moment. That electrical attack would need to stop soon, or things were going to get explosive in a hurry.

Uh..squad car, in the air. Incoming! TJ ducks down and springs like a frog off to the side before the airborne squad car ..gets caught in a field of energy. Thanks, Amanda! Though, she still managed to get Rhino's attention. Now it's a slightly less ideal moment. She's not prepared for the follow-through.

Nocturne swallows hard. "Oops."

She ends up doing something stupid and foolish and turns her back on Rhino, instead springing back for the largely intact squad car. Another quick leap and she's stuck to the bodywork, quickly pulling the door open.

Another instant later and there's a blue, three-fingered palm diving down toward the driver, urgency driving her actions. She can practically feel the bullseye painted on her back for Rhino's approach. "Take my hand! C'mon man, we're sitting at ground zero!"

Or..not? Someone with a shield is on interception for the interception. A quick glance is passed over her shoulder, followed by a triumphant fist punching into the air. "Go team!"

Iron Spider's field of view quickly gets blocked by sand blowing through the air, thankfully for him that is not as big a problem as it might be for other Spider heroes. He quickly activates the alternative systems besides normal vision and starts a subroutine to hack into the nearest CCTV cameras so he can keep an eye on other parts of the fight with his HUD system. "Fine, if I can't see you then..." He shimmers as he activates the suit's camoflauge capabilities and vanishes from view. "...you can't see me." Once he is invisable he is off and running, but not into the thick of things but for the middle of the road where he knows for a fact there is a manhole cover.

Once he gets to the manhole his hand moves down so that his finger tips can catch it and using the wall crawling tech built into the suit and the strength boosters in it he lifts the cover up and changes his grip before throwing it in a picture perfect copy of Captain America throwing his shield...which no one will ever see because the manhole cover is the only thing that is visable. The manhole cover goes spinning through the air aimed to bounce off the corner of a building knocking out several bricks, bouncing from there to the top of a firehydrent across the street that if it does not start spraying water everywhere immediatly will do so soon once the pressure gets to be too much for the cracked top, and then from there aimed for one of the metal tentecle arms that Doctor Octapus is using to walk.

Well, if it wasn't one thing, it's another. Kurt and the Wagner ladies weren't alone, per say, for Shift had come along with them, only to have run off to take care of a few, shall we say, 'errands'. He wasn't supposed to meet them just so soon, but the carnage wasn't hard to miss, even from a few blocks away. With his X-Men suit safely concealed beneath his usual biker-meets-hipster gear, the African comes tearing through parked and swerving cars upon the horsepowered street regality of his Harley-Davidson Iron 883.

Kwabena pulls up a block away, whipping the motorcycle to the left and letting its tires screech to a halt. This helps him to avoid the MTA bus that just tore through an intersection, its driver staring agape at the meta-fighting taking place down the road.

"" he curses.

With one punch of the throttle, Kwabena hefts the bike over a curb and lays it down between a bank of newspaper bins and a subway entrance. There is a strange poof of smoke, and the African's clothing all but falls to the ground. That cloud of smoke takes to the air, roils up against the bold "N, R Line" sign upon the subway entrance, and with what could best be described as a 'kick', goes tearing through the air above the heads of those below, making a beeline for, of all things, Rhino.

The cloud of smoke splits in two, wraps around Rhino's neck, and suddenly begins to solidify. Where there once was a Kwabena in civilian garb, there now is a X-Suited Shift, mask covering the upper half of his face and all. The African's arms are wrapped around Rhino's neck, and his feet move to plant themselves in his back.

"Sahprise!"

Making every effort to -hold on-, Shift grinds his teeth and begins the process of hardening his body. If he can just make himself dense enough, perhaps he'll be able to slow this monstrosity down even further!

Then again, this fellow is a -whole lot larger- than Shift...

The police car that would have hit Kurt and his crew takes out the front window of the restaurant where they were all just eating. The police officer in the car is saved, just in time, by Amanda's quick thinking. The shield catches the car safely, and saves the man from certain death. Amanda's leap upward clears a bit of her vision and she is able to see the fight below.

Meanwhile, Kurt is able to bamf directly next to Harry Osborn, who looks terrified. He wriggles desperately trying to get out of Octavius' clutches, but to no avail.

Vorpal's trick is fortuitous because two bolts of electricity branch out in an attack towards him, but hits two of the 'dupes' instead. He continues his run towards Channel, completely unabated.

Through an extreme effort and superhuman strength, Miles will shock even himself. He groans, but is able to lift the car just enough to allow the man to get out. "Thank you! Oh, bless you, Spider-Man!" he says to the young hero, confusing his identity. "I'll never believe the Bugle again!"

As Channel searches for a source, it takes her time what with all of the different angles and avenues the electricity is coming from. Just as she thinks she has it narrowed down, the electricity hits overdrive, charging her higher, and higher, and higher.

Indeed, Sarah's attack has left TJ free and clear. The young blue mutant's bravery has surely saved not only the man who she pulls from the car, but also the countless people that would have been hurt in the aftermath.

MVP's resourcefulness serves him well. If the eyes of the spider are blocked, use other eyes! Through triangulation, he's able easily use his new eyes to get to the manhole cover. BAM! The brick flies true and bursts the fire hydrant, spraying water everywhere! Everyone earlier effected by the sandstorm suddenly feels clear as all the sand seems to conglomerate onto itself. Eventually, the visage of a man appears. A really pissed off man named Flint Marko. Because Flint Marko hates/hates/hates/ being wet. The manhole cover he throws staggers Octavius and both he and Osborn flail. As it looks as though Octavius is going to stumble, the villain inadvertently DROPS Osborn, who hurtles towards the ground in a free fall of certain doom.

Rhino's expression goes from one of confusion at TJ to one of surprise at Sarah as she hurtles down towards him in a fit of fury. He looks over his shoulder and tries to move out of the way. Until. ..

Shift's attack definitely pulls Rhino back and holds him in place for Sarah. This Emitter isn't sure what she's going to do the Rhino, but any hopes the villain had for getting away in time have been dashed by Shift.

One Spidey is free of the dust, he's up on his feet and one hand in a defensive position. Then he sees what's happened. Water. Sand and electricity are not big into water, see. So, taking a page out of MVP's book (who is invisible, so he has no clue the other Spider is there), he starts popping waterplugs, just for old time sake. "Summah summah summah time! Oooooh Summer time!"

Water begins splashing everywhere, and once it hits the electricity, that man that Channel was looking for-that source-Electro finally shows himself as he splays out onto the road, crawling to get away from the water as fast as possible.

One day, Kurt will have to have a chat with Spidey and find out exactly who is the better wall climber and such. But, until that happens?

The Amazing Nightcrawler is ready to dodge and keep out of the way of Oc's arms (and the flying manhole cover!).. until, of course, he wants them. Leaping straight into the air again, the fuzzy blue elf wraps his tail around one of those arms, and leans over to the hostage in question, his smile bright and .. probably not reassuring, but he does try!

"We're leaving now.."

*BAMF*

Kurt takes both the poor terrified man AND bits of that arm with him in the teleport, bringing him to the burger joint they'd just left so few minutes ago before the customer in blue disappears once again after, "He wants the #13.. no onions. Make sure it's medium.."

*BAMF*

Short work, soon, picking the legs off the spider.. er.. octopus..

Hello Kitty to the rescue! Well... not really. He's buffer, better looking, and he actually has a mouth, for one, but Vorpal reaches Channel's general area without actually getting fried into a purple toast. That's got to count for something, right? He and his dupes raise a hand and concentrate -- to generate a barrier in front of Channel, to keep that electricity off her because, otherwise, she might go Nuclear on them, if that burst she sent out shows anything... but what's this? The electicity has stopped? The cheshire cat grins as he sees Electro appearing as water shorts him out.

"Hey, Sparky, it's your unbirthday!" Vorpal says. Instead of generating the barrier he conjures up a purple, glowing anvil directly overhead the crawling Electro, suspended in mid-air. "Why don't you open your present?" and gleefully lets gravity take a hold of the anvil. After all, if he took care of Sir Sparks-Alot, that's the end of the electric light parade.

On the up side, Sarah hit The Rhino. On the down side, she sort of ends up bouncing off a bit. On the real upside she at least probably did something, especially considering her speed and super strength.

And yet, as she pulls herself up, she eyes Nocturne for a moment, saying"If this is a team..."

The strap of her hammer comes off of her wrist as she tries to throw it as hard as she can right at Rhinos face while Shift slows him down.

"Then we need a little work."

All though as she notices something odd about TJ, her jaw /almost/ drops for the briefest of instants, but instead she shakes it off as she tries to keep her head in the game.

From her higher vantage point, Amanda gets a much better idea of what's happening where. That's when she discovers just how much distress young Jocelyn is in. Again, with the Romani cursing. Forget the sand. Like Vorpal, she realizes that if Channel explodes, it's like unleashing a nuclear bomb on the street... or near enough, anyway.

She throws her voice, using another spell, saying to Channel, "I've got you, Channel. You'll be okay. Let it rip." And she trusts the stranger (i.e. Vorpal) to deal with the rest of the energy. With that, once more, the sorceress begins forming a shield. This one, however, is very peculiarly shaped, and forms directly around the mutant girl, between her and Vorpal's buffer. It should, all things being equal, funnel any energy Jocelyn discharges straight up and away from the planet. It should also catch the girl when she inevitably falls after the release.

So, someone else is going to have to try to isolate that sandstorm... at least until Daytripper can be sure the young X-Man is safe and refocus her attention on the rest of the fight.

The Spider blinks under his mask, "I'm not... nevermind." He puts the car down, and then leaps away, taking a moment to take in everything going on in the battle. Bouncing from lamppost to overturned car to building wall and back out again, he makes his way from his starting position to do a leaping kick at Doc Ock while he's distracted by Nightcrawler and the hostage's sudden disappearance.

Well, on one hand, it was kind of flattering that Channel was the receipient of so much effort from the villains (or at least one of them) to try and neutralize her this quickly. On the other hand, it really kind of sucked. Mostly because she's now a liability to the group. She spots the source and curses that it's a person. If it had been a machine, she'd have just blasted right down to it and blown it sky high with her. But, she wasn't the killing sort.

Instead, now she's got Amanda funneling her. Even with Sparky no longer hitting her with the attacks, she was hit with so much in effectively one strike that it's not a question of if she's going up, but when. As Amanda tells her she's got something around her, Channel notes the magical energy surrounding her. Well, that would help. The girl flies upwards a bit, just in case, until she can't hold it anymore, and there's a blinding flash of light in the sky as the mostly-contained explosion happens, resulting in a rather expectacular light show. Most of the energy hurtles straight up and away to who-knows-where, while that massive explosion happens within the bubble.

The show lasts about twenty seconds before it stops, and Jocelyn just starts to fall, her body very badly burned (the explosion originated inside her, after all) and unconscious. The bubble catches her, but the girl isn't moving, and is barely breathing as it is.

Some days, you really should just sleep in all day.

"Sheesh, so much for that Rhino dude, huh?" TJ says to the rescued officer as though all hell weren't breaking loose behind them. "This many heroes around, I can't imagine why anyone would want to be the first nail to stick out. I'm pretty sure we got this--"

Glance.

"--yeah, we got this. Think you can help clear people out? No sense in risking it."

As for the battle in question, TJ looks back with a gentle sigh and a silly grin. "Yeah, there's no way the Timebroker would have sent us here. This place is completely 'reality-breaking event' free."

In response to Sarah TJ rolls her shoulders, good humor yet intact. "Do we? These guys barely got started before everyone laid the smackdown on 'em."

She can't fly, Rhino's getting tag-teamed by powerhouses, heck. What's left for her but crowd control?

"Back it up folks! Do not look directly at the butt-kicked baddies! They might get embarrassed."

Iron Spider will never have the brains of the Real Spider-Man (TM) or Tony Stark (PP) but he has his moments. Managing to get the Sandman and Electro to where they stop the area effect sandstorm and the lightning bolts is one he is going to keep a record of so that he can show his brothers if he ever gets home or they show up in this world.

Iron Spider does not sit on his lorals though, not when there are still villians to fight and civilians to protect. While Nightcrawler grabs the falling hostage, really that was an accident he always thought Doctor Octapus had a better grip on the kid, he takes a run for Sandman shimmering into existance at the last moment before he does a flip over where the man has formed into a human like shape. Spinning as he goes over the villian he extends his arms and *thwip* *thwip* shoots strands of his webbing at the man hoping to start a cocoon that might hold him for a little while at least.

With his arms still wrapped around Rhino's neck, Shift eyeballs the ever-supercharging Channel from beneath his mask. A grimace forms on his face, but the arrival of a hammer to his prey's face snaps him -right- back into the moment.

The grimace turns into a snarl, soon joined by a telltale sound--the crackling of his flesh as it reaches its most hardened state. With his boots plugged into the beast's back, he pulls as hard as he might in an effort to bring Rhino down to the ground.

"Boss," growls the accented Ghanaian, "You -really- need to lay off de steak and eggs."

He's suddenly blinded by the exploding Channel, and though the mask serves to keep him from suffering permanent damage, it knocks him blurry. Which is all the more reason to -pull- with everything he has.

"Down we go!"

"Oh my heavens, thank you!" Harry says as he clings on to Kurt in a grip round the neck so tight that the Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase would be jelly.

(http://www.wwe.com/f/styles/standard_list/public/t25/image/2012/04/million_dollar_dream.jpg)

"I'll pay for whatever he's having!" Harry exclaims.

CONK!

Electro does have super-durability, but the well placed anvil and the haywire nature of his powers right now, causes the anvil to knock Electro out cold. There's another wrestling reference in there somewhere, perhaps Brutus the Barber Beefcake this time, he also of sleeper fame (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Brutus_Beefcake_Shears.jpg).

The powerful attack of Crusader staggers Rhino, and the follow up sees him receiving a terrible hammer to the face. This knocks man, despite the strength of his suit, out cold. The giant frame of the Rhino begins to topple backwards at the attack and Shift's beckoning and pulling. Their combined effort turns the Rhino's weight into topple mode. Look out below!

Daytripper's shield envelopes Channel easily. The purple hue encircles around the young X-woman, encasing her within its energy.

From nowhere, The Spider leaps and attacks the surprised Doctor Octopus. He'd been so busy righting his balance, he'd not seen the young man and his attack coming. Thwapakow! The kick lands right in Dococ's kisser (gross. That dude wouldn't get no kisses. Totally unbelievable phrasing, dude. Try again.) backspacingbackspacingbackspacing. The kick lands right in his face, making that nasty sound of bone-thud. Octopus out.

Channel is safely cocooned within Amanda's shielding and is brought down gently to the Earth in her protector's care. The energy leaps up into the sky, giving the fight an extraordinary light show, and the explosion is safely contained as Channel lets loose.

Passersby start meandering away at TJ's beckoning. They look at her, and now that it's clear the good guys are winning, they can't help but smile at her humor and deadpanning in what could have been an extremely terrible situation. Clearly, there's a load off the citizens shoulders too.

Between the wetness and the confusion, Flint Marko is an easy target. It'll take him a while to reorganize himself once he dries out anyways. But now MVP's attack keeps all that lovely moisture in a nice shell. He is effectively incapacitated.

"We goin' sizzler. We goin' sizzler." Oh, man Peter Parker. Readers know you're a nerd, but doing the cabbage patch in the middle of the road is simply too much. And referencing movies from the 1990s is a joke absolutely no one will get. It's embarrassing for you, us, and anyone who reads this log. "There's a joke in here somewhere about Spider-Man and his amazing friends, but I'm not gonna make it because A) I kind of got my butt kicked and B) I know like one of these people. Him. Over there." Spidey waves to The Spider.

"Good job, Team." Spider-Man says, triumphantly. All around are wrecked police cars, soaked pavement, burned out light posts, cracked buildings, and general chaos. Nevertheless, despite the massive amounts of damage to property, no one died in this episode. Not even Harry.

It's always the collateral damage that is the worst. It's that stuff that mutants get blamed with.. mostly. As it is, Kurt has a policy to never be around when there are police around. But, now, this is twice that he's broken that rule. One day, it'll come back to bite him on the fuzzy blue tail.

One day.

As it is, the crowd is actually dispersing, thanks to TJ? Huh.. cute fuzzy blue mutant isn't interesting enough to look at?

Not a bad thing, being boring.. and it's a novelty to say the least.

Twisting around to check on Amanda, Kurt's expression turns into a frown as he sees that which she's handling. Or rather, whom.. "Ja.. bring her--" and he's pretty sure that she'll fill in all those blanks.

It's with a quick *bamf* that the elf disappears and re-appears beside TJ, his expression.. comforted. Pleased now.. "Tell me you're almost ready to go home und have some more--

"Shift!"

Finally, it sinks in that his friend is back, and Kurt whistles a shrill sound. "Amanda's.. burgers.. we still have more to discuss. Und we have beer.." unlike the burger joint that doesn't have their license.

Vorpal grins and looks around as the pickup starts. "Wow... that was totally amazing... and I totally didn't die a horrible death." He says, laughing a little and perpetrating a little bit of mischief--- as the anvil vanishes once the villain is knocked out, he leaves an illusion on Electro where he is clad in a pink version of his uniform, with glitter and tutu. Because his facemask made him look like he was french-kissing a starfish, and Vorpal has too much respect for echinoderms to let that sort of abuse go on unpunished. For he is Vorpal, the sword of fishy justice!

Or was that Aquaman? What does Aquaman really *do*, anyways? Maybe he'll ask him if he meets him someday.

Then again, that might not be a good idea.

Slowing down from a run to a trot, he approaches the blue figure he had seen -bamf-ing around the battle. "Um... excuse me--" he says to him, ears flattening against his skull as Kurt lets out a sharp whistle--- "Gah!--" his tail frizzles. Sometimes having very acute hearing was not very good.

"Shhhiiiii--!"

Perhaps it was vulgarity, perhaps Kwabena has adopted a new bit of grandstanding. Fortunately, in his hardened state, nobody will be enjoying any Shiftcakes this evening.

Tendrils of black smoke seep out from the cracked pavement beneath the snoozing Rhino. They form into a man-shaped cloud, and then with a sound of displaced air, Shift is back. And he's whacking his gloved hands together as if to suggest it was all in a day's work.

Hearing his name called out, Shift turns and starts walking toward Nightcrawler, with a grin curling his lips. "You rang?"

And as Sarahs hammer flies right back into her hand, she blinks, especially with how TJ plays the crowd.

"I know this might sound a bit odd, but did anyone ever tell you that you sort of look like..."

And then there's that *BAMF!* and The Crusaders jaw /DROPS/.

"Uncle Kurt?!?"

Of course as he rushes off to talk to Shift, thus she's left there standing a bit dumbfounded.

"You're so /young/." is all but murmured, that is if anyone even hears her.

As the bad-guys are incapacitated, Amanda's soaring straight for Jocelyn. Even from the distance, she can see the girl's in very bad shape. She lands beside her, the purple shield dissipating as she breeches it. "Joce?" Another string of Romani expletives. The girl's not just out cold, she's nearly burnt to a crisp and barely breathing.

Unfortunately, she doesn't actually pay close attention to Kurt or TJ, at the moment. Or anyone else. Her focus is entirely on the girl that lies burnt on the pavement. She starts digging through her bag of tricks until she finds what she's looking for -- a small phial that contains her standard healing potion. "Hang on, kid," she says softly, cradling the girl's head, now.

She pours the potion between Channel's cracked and bloody lips. The girl chokes a little on it, her eyes fluttering. Amanda's expression remains tense until she sees Jocelyn's breathing ease and her body shudder with the healing magic that spreads through it. "You're gonna be okay, kid." she smiles tightly. "I'll get you back to Medlab."

A portal. She's going to need a portal...

Suddenly, there's a Kurt standing beside TJ. Fun how that works! She'll never have to worry about getting stranded on the side of the road due to a breakdown, not with TeleDad on call.

Sarah is given an impish grin, holding up a three-fingered hand in an attempt to cut off what may well become another bout of twenty one questions. Uncle Kurt..?

"Alternate reality, thought I'd come back again, the weather around here rocks! Don't worry, he's not my true father. My life isn't quite that weird. Please excuse us though, our food's getting cold and bacon double cheeseburgers wait for no woman."

The Spider bounces back up to a lamp-post and then jumps towards Spider-man, if the other Spider sticks around. "Hey. Good to see you again. I wanted to ask you before.. well, a bunch of stuff, but how do you do your webs? Is it a power too? Mine didn't come with webs, or if they did, I haven't figured it out."

Iron Spider looks around watching the level of destruction caused by the fight, or at least by the bad guys before the fight really started. The crimson clad spider bounces his way across the battle field using the metal spider legs that extend from the back of his costume as he goes till he ends up on a wall near to where all of the metahumans that took part in the fight are congregating. "At least the collateral damage is not as bad as a Hulk level event." He says before certain words get a reaction. "Excuse me, did you say alternate reality? And I thought I was the only one. Is that something that is particularly common here?"

Vorpal blinks, and realizes these people probably have things to do and people to see, and that they're all together. "Er... never mind," he says grinning, "Bad timing. I'll send my regards through Fern--" he says. If this is the man Fern described to him, that is. God, he hoped he wasn't making an idiot of himself and there were more than one blue, fuzzy betailed male mutants hopping around. "Have a merry unbirthday!" He grins, and vanishes. Well, not really-- he Sidesteps and appears fifteen feet away, but he figured it'd be the polite thing to do. Plus... he dropped a weenie. Maybe the hot dog man would come back? He glances around, hopeful.

Amanda rises to her feet, depositing the now empty phial back in her satchel. The mage armour around her flickers out of existence and she takes a moment to look around at the scene of the battle and get her bearings. Then, she glances to Kurt. "I'll meet you at home," she tells him.

With that, she opens a portal with a spell and stoops to pick up the mutant girl at her feet. Stepping through the portal with Channel, she disappears and the portal winks out.

Uncle Kurt?

"Was.." comes out. German first, always. Particularly when broadsided with such things. Kurt gives Sarah a long look, those glowing yellow eyes blinking.. and he cants his head before he twists around to look at Amanda. There's nothing .. mutant about the girl. Blond. Blue eyes. Looks like Amanda.. in this guise, anyway. "Hers?" and he points to his foster sister in question.

He's trying to take everything in stride, he is! But.. yeah.

Vorpal is seen.. and his brows rise.. "Oh.. Um.. ja.. sorry." Though, he catches the name of a friend, and his smile rises, showing fangs, "Give her my regards.."

Before Kurt takes hold of TJ.. and he can't help but bark a laugh. "Medium rare. With fried onions.. cheese.. the best." Beat. "Shift, mein freund. Come along.." and with a nod to Amanda's words, "See you home, liebling," the blue elf is ready to simply..

*BAMF*

After all, burgers wait for no woman. Or man.

Alternate reality? Maybe Sarah knew that. Maybe not. After all the whole thing with how she got her 'new' hammer is a bit... Odd.

But still, as TJ heads off, what she says starts to sink in with Sarah, right as Iron Spider chimes in, and well...

"I don't know...?" is murmured towards Patrick.

Then though there's a slight head shake at Kurt, but of course before she can even so how or who, he's gone...

"Hey, hey." Shift holds up his hand in hesitation. "Not me, Elf-man." He cants his head toward Channel, watching as Amanda helps her, then looks back to Kurt. "My -bike- is here, no way I'm leaving it for da cops!"

That said, he takes a quick step backward, in order to avoid the bamf, then goes trotting across the way toward the downed Channel. "Hey, Detroit. You alright?"

"Hey, hey." Shift holds up his hand in hesitation. "Not me, Elf-man." He cants his head toward Channel, watching as Amanda helps her, then looks back to Kurt. "My -bike- is here, no way I'm leaving it for da cops!"

That said, he takes a quick step backward, in order to avoid the bamf, then goes trotting across the way toward the downed motorcycle. There's another brief poof of smoke, which dives down into his spent clothes and forms up -inside- of them. He straightens the jacket, hops on the bike, and with a rev of the engines, goes tearing off into the night.

Vorpal walks up to the Iron Spider and grins. "Hey... nice flying you did over there. I'd rather not be around when the boys in blue show up... not registered yet and all. Think you could take on a passenger?"

Clinging to the wall, upside down, the Iron Spider cants his head to the side and shrugs. "Teleporters." He says as if that is all that needs to be said about that specific subset of superhumans. "Interesting. I am going to have to see if I can find others from alternate realities. Maybe I will find a way to go home." After a second of thought he adds. "The authorities trained in superhuman detention are only a few blocks away. Anyone that wishes to avoid the police should perhaps leave this area." The Iron Spider looks at Vorpal as he walks up to where he is clinging to a wall and unlike some other crimson clad people with full face masks does not manage to show any expression at all through his mask. "I can glide, not fly. I do not have the lift to get away alone let alone with another person. But I can offer a ride..." He says while changing his orientation so that he is head upwards and then reaches out with a couple of the spider arm waldoes to attempt to grab the purple furred person. If he grabs him he will pick him up and bring him to his back where he can hang on while he goes skittering up the building. It is not often a spider can give a piggy back ride to a cat, with luck this won't turn out like the parable about the frog and the scorpion.

And as The Iron Spider says he needs to track down other people from alternate realities, Sarah... The Crusader nods.

And yet at the mention of 'authorities'...

Well, until she has a better grip on what's going on, she probably better be scarce. Thus the takes to the sky. Shield, Hammer, and all.

"Don't mind if I do." Vorpal smirks and lets himself be carried off on Iron Spider's back. It is an unusual way to exit, but why should this day be any different? "Hayo SilveCrimson, away!" he calls.

"Webs are home-made, Broski. A special brew. I don't have much time to explain before the men in blue come and take me to Cinder-block motel, but stick around and I'll hit you up some point soon." Spider-Man reaches out to dap the Spider before shooting a web off into the distance and bounding away.

Iron Spider watches the blond girl with what he assumes is a replica of /The/ Shield and lets out an audible sigh. Oh well, despite all the training he needs to wield it the real thing is better off with the owner. Even if getting a good ricochet going is so much fun. Yes, Iron Spider has lived the kind of life where the greatest joys he has experienced were all while training and in live fire exorcises. Those, and the occasional seriously crazy games of Frisbee with his clone brothers. As he hears the purple catboy cry out he actually laughs, and loudly. What amuses him though is less the way Vorpal responds and more what he is called. For an instant Red Team 3 gets to remember the name he can't use because its original owner still has it.

The Spider's smile is likely evident in his voice as he says, "Awesome, thanks!" He watches Spider-man swing away a moment before jumping for a nearby building and disappearing from view as he camouflages. Time to find Ganke and tell him everything.