| YXM: Camping Trip | |||||
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| What: A bunch of X-Men take their students camping in Canada. What could go wrong? | |||||
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It's cold, foresty, and smells like the great outdoors. No caves with grizzly bears. Or grizzly mooses. A river, a few camp spots nearby, but for the most part, not terribly busy.
Because WHO'S CRAZY ENOUGH TO CAMP IN CANADA? Don't answer that.
The teleportation portal opens for what -might- be the last time, and the last bit of supplies is dropped -nearly- on top of Doug's head.
"Thanks, Illyana," Doug calls out. There was no reply, as the sorceress simply disappears back into Limbo. Shrugging briefly at Illyana's dark mood, Doug takes one more stab at lighting the campfire the old fashioned way.
The Young X-Men, along with a few instructors, were in the middle of a camping park, somewhere in Sasketchwan, Canada. The wickiups had been set up, with little trouble, the supplies had been brought by, and the animals were rustling about, steering clear of the camp grounds. It was cool, chilling fast as the sun had just set, and Doug was still -trying- to get the last bit of campfire going so that they could -cook- dinner. Finally giving it up, Doug throws his hands up. "Hell with it. Jocelyn, blast it."
Kurt Wagner, instructor.
The Indigo Bamfer has all his supplies set to the side; could be that he got 'special treatment', or it's more like an understanding. Or, there is such a thing as 'teleporter code' born of demon spawn. Or it could be because he's bribed Illy with cake from a German bakery he's been frequenting. As he shifts his belongings to look for his 'donation to the cause', that is, dessert stuff, his brows rise at Doug's command before he grins.
Mutants always do things differently. Why deny gifts when they're so useful?
"Using what is available. That is the first rule of camping."
Training. Laura just keeps thinking of this as training. She kind of has to.
She followed instructions. She helped set things up. And now...
Now she is fighting her impulse to retreat from the group. To find a spot out in the woods where she can hide, but still watch, and watch out for her friends and allies.
Instead, for the moment she just sits there, by the unlit campfire, fighting her own instincts even as she watches Doug try, and fail, to start the fire.
Ah, Saskatchewan. Think Wyoming, but colder. Big sky. Flat land. You can watch your dog run away for days... as long as the grain or corn hasn't sprouted up too high.
Truth be told, camping isn't really Amanda's cup of tea. She's good at it -- her childhood as a gypsy saw to that -- but she's definitely a city-girl now. In fact, were it not for Kurt, she probably wouldn't be here at all.
But, Kurt was persuasive, so here she is... bundled in layers, booted and gloved. Because the Canadian Spring is late this year. She rustles about the kitchen supplies, sorting provisions for the evening meal. "The first rule of camping," she retorts to the fuzzy blue elf, "is: Hotels Rule."
Some people apparently needed to take Shift's survival course a bit. Jocelyn has brought a large duffle bag, packed with clothing and whatever else Jocelyn thought might be useful on this trip that she actually owned. The teenager had hesitantly stepped through the portal, mostly because she still didn't really like certain memories she had associated with Illyana's portals. Regardless, she was now here, and she just shakes her head a little at Doug.
"Just takes making a little hole in the wood and spinning a stick rapidly in the hole," the woman says, moving to do just that. "Besides, I don't blast fire exactly. Yeah, I can burn stuff with thermal energy, but it's also going to send everything flying when I hit blast it," she points out. However, she'd done pretty well in Shift's survival course, and she'll get a fire going reasonably quickly. That was basic survival stuff, and she could do that just fine.
Cessily has done this before, and she's come prepared. Long jeans, solid boots, flannel shirt, even! Red, of course, to match her hair. Cessily carries her sleeping bag under one arm, and her pack in the other, complete with a change of clothes and some basic kit. "I though the first rule," she says, coming through the portal, "was to take only pictures and leave only footprints," Cessily notes. "Oh, hello Amanda," she says. She'd heard of Amanda, and could infer who she was. "I didn' tknow you were coming. Either of you, actually," she says, seeming pleased. She does like her drama teacher, after all.
Near Kurt, Bobby's setting up his own supplies. He brought along his own things. Sure the cold doesn't bother him but he's still wearing a big coat. He flashes a grin Amanda's way. "Definitly. Especially ones with hot tubs," he says, nudging Kurt "Right, man?"
"First rule of camping, just pass the hot dogs," Doug grins, brandishing a large stick for just this purpose, as he waves towards Jocelyn. "You could just pass your thermal energy -into- the stick, instead of blasting it, you know. A little bit of control. And yes, I know I said blast it, but that was metaphorial, before you try arguing with me. So give it a shot. If something goes haywire, we've got Bobby to put out the fire." Nonetheless, Doug takes a few steps back away from the campfire. Just in case.
"And hotels are -not- the point here. It's just... well, both social and teamwork in one. But the exercises are tomorrow. Tonight..." Looking up at the moon starting to rise, Doug grins at Amanda, waggling his fingers. "I hope you've got -good- stories."
Kurt has his winter woolies on, not to mention he's got a layer of fur beneath, so he's toasty warm for the time being, and in high spirits. (Even after the trip through Limbo.) Once his pile is set, he's got his sleeping bag set, pillow, and set of dry clothes in his watertight can set aside.
"Hotels are fine. Just.. think of this as a cheap hotel?" Kurt's teasing, and the grin that is shared with Amanda is turned on Bobby, and he barks a laugh, and returns with a shoulder pat with the flat of his spade-tail. "Ja.. hot tubs are nice, but I don't think there are any spas in .. where are we? Seska.. how do you pronounce it again?"
Looking to Joce, Kurt's brows rise, and his tones don't turn from teasing, but there's something.. instructional that lies beneath those tones. "Perhaps you could learn to tone it down a little.. fine tune it to do what it is you wish, und as powerful as you wish?" He's not being harsh- just.. opening up options!
Laura is given an encouraging smile, and he waves to the woman, gesturing towards his bricks of chocolate, bags (and bags!) of marshmellows.. and boxes of, yes, graham crackers. "Did you want to add this to the stock?" His weenies are his own! (For now.)
Kurt chuckles at Cess' questioning of the rules and offers a light shrug. "I have always wondered what moose tasted like.." he considers. He's not being serious, however! "Und.. ja. I couldn't miss this. Time away und such.."
Apparently Kurt is in full agreement with Doug, and nods, pointing at the slightly younger man. "Ja.. see?" Always good to know that there's agreement. Particularly when it comes to learning about gifts.
"But you aren't getting my weenies." Teamwork be damned! "You are on your own there."
Unlike the others, Laura didn't bring... Anything. Except for the clothes on her back that is. But then again considering that she's wearing her Weapon X uniform under her clothes, what else could she need?
And while Amanda does get a brief, momentary look from the cloned mutant girl, she doesn't speak up. After all, the other 'instructors' are fine with her, thus...
Thus she just continues to sit there. Silent. As she watches and listens to the others. All though at all of those conflicting rules, she speaks up, and adds her own 'Rule 1'.
"No. the first rule is to survive." is said before she blinks and offers a slightly confused glance at what Kurt is offering.
"Hot tubs. Champaign." Amanda returns Bobby's grin. "Room service!" And, as a flight attendant, she knows where pretty much all the best hotels are all around the world. She's stayed in a goodly number of them, too, much to her pleasure. Thus, she winks at Doug. "What's not to love about that?"
He wants stories, huh? She purses her lips slightly. "Oh, I'm sure I can come up with something," she tells him presently. "Pick a genre." God knows she's lived most campfire tale genres at one point or another -- from ghost stories and horror to comedies of errors.
She lets Kurt and Bobby do the instructing, for now. Truthfully, she's partly along in case they need an emergency portal out. (she brought an artefact she made just for the occasion, in case her powers decide to glitch in the wilderness.) Illy's not the only magic user with such abilities, after all. Partly, she's around to balance the ratio of male-to-female instructors. (Ok. By one.) She glances to Laura. It's easy to see the girl is far less comfortable around crowds than most. And not hard to guess that she finds the prairie around them preferable to the urban environment the witch prefers. As for Jocelyn, learning control is important. And the guys have said so clearly enough.
She smiles at Cessily. "Hi," she replies. "Wouldn't miss it," she tells the girl with a wink. "Really." Okay. Yes, she would. But her tone is good natured, nonetheless. She can put up with a few inconveniences like lack of modern plumbing now and then. When she has to. Besides, it probably doesn't hurt her to brush up on her survival skills when her powers are weak.
"I'll give it a shot," Jocelyn says with a casual shrug. Energy transfer really wasn't her thing though. She'd never actually tried something like this before. Which meant she really had no idea if it it was going to work or not. Jocelyn settles down in front of the firepit and looks at the pile of wood. She starts letting out very small pulses of energy, focused in the center of that pile of wood and leaves. The area directly around Jocelyn will grow a little bit colder as she pulls in the available thermal energy for this task. She's doing it at the lowest level she can manage, and the pile of wood rattles just a little bit as she works on the project.
After a couple minutes, smoke starts to rise as she heats the wood up enough with her bursts. "Huh," is Jocelyn's comment as a few licks of flame start rising. She'd not actually thought that would work. "Don't think I'm quite ready to start lighting birthday candles yet, but that's something". Unless you wanted the cake to explode. The girl can accept well enough that there might be fine aspects of her power still to learn. It just wasn't something she thought of, to use her ability for relatively mundane tasks like starting a campfire.
"Kind of gamey?" Cessily tells Kurt. "That's what people always say but it's true! Maybe it was just because it was jerky already. We stopped at this place in the Yukon when we drove to Alaska one summer," Cessily says. She shifts her pack and sleeping bag into place and takes a seat at the fire. ""I thought Mister Wagner was your roomserice," she asks Amanda with a faint laugh.
Cessily looks with more skepticism at Laura. "We're...not really at risk of not surviving. It's just camping," she says. "Now that's cool," Cessily says with a smile, as Jocelyn makes the flames rise.
"Careful, Kurt. You withhold the weenies and I won't give you any of the cannolis I brought along with me," Bobby speaks up. "Saskatchewan, Kurt," he adds for his friend. "Or just call it Canada. It's all cold and hockey," he jokes. Turning his attention to Jocelyn, he watches her manipulate the energy. He can see the thermal energy moving and he smiles his approval when the flames ignote. "Good goin', Joce," he offers. "We'll get you to candle-lighting eventually. And if not, you can always just carry a lighter for that," he jokes a little more. Laura gets a little look though. "We were joking around, Laura. Just having fun."
Doug looks thoughtful. "You know, carrying a lighter or other sources of generating energy might be a good idea, Jocelyn," the mutant muses. "It'd be small and easily portable."
Shaking his head, Doug grins at Kurt, before digging into his own knapsack and fishing out packages of hot dogs and buns. "Tomorrow we try fishing. But for now..." Passing out the hot dogs, Doug starts toasting his own hot dog. "Canada's a pretty country anyway. It's just still so... natural. Right, Amanda, Cess?"
Glancing towards Laura, Doug shakes his head, waving a wiener at the young mutant. "Come get it. Don't just hang out there..."
Chocolate. Marshmellows. Graham crackers? It's one of the first true introductions to American junk food. Kurt exhales in a soft chuff and begins to hand the items over to whomever will take them. "Before I change my mind."
Now, Jocelyn's attempt at firestarting and subsequent (and eventual) success at it gains a genuine, "Well done," from the blue elf. "Nein.. but it looks good. Now you know how it feels when you channel something in such a way." Okay, while Kurt isn't an energy channeler, or a magic user or somesuch, he's been raised with them.. and has a pretty good foundation for knowledge. He just can't apply it is all. But, he's also one of those who is a huge proponent of 'how many applications of a gift can be done..'. Always asking, always pushing, moving forward.
Now that the fire is truly going, Kurt looks to Amanda first, then Cessily. "No, because room service always has to leave. I want to eat some of the stuff that she's got." Like popcorn. Some of the beer she brings back from her overseas flights..
Bobby's own admonition leads to the blue fuzzy's brows rising. "Cannoli?" Kurt pats his belly, "I think I've gained ten pounds from that.." Kurt tries again, and only gets as far as 'Seskat..' and gives up, instead defaulting to, "Ja... Canada."
Kurt takes a hot dog that Doug's passing out, and breaks a stick in half before he lashes another stick, effectively having a spot for two(!) weenies! "Amanda.. I've got yours here.." Beat. "Doug.. the way you are waving that wiener, it will break in half."
And as Laura tilts her head at Dougs hot dog, she pauses. All though at the mention of 'room service' by Amanda, the cloned girl rolls her eyes, especially with how Cess responds to it.
On the other hand, as that fire is lit, Laura can't help but offer Jocelyn an honest to goodness smile, as faint as it is, as she tries to silently make it clear that she's impressed.
All though at how Bobby brushes off 'the great white north' like that, she tosses out, "You forgot Molson..."
Yeah. Don't ask how she knows that, since she definitely doesn't drink.
Then again, at Kurts 'break in half' comment there is a faint snort from Laura. That is before she sniffs the air, as if she possibly smells something... Odd.
Amanda arches a brow faintly at Cessily's joke. She smiles and offers a brief laugh. "On occasion," she concedes. Though, generally, she plays down whatever relationship she and Kurt may have had in the past -- at least, she does at the mansion. (That's what the apartment in the city is for.) At Kurt's reply, however, she laughs and shakes her head. Obviously, it's going to be one of those nights -- where the jokes are flying and perhaps not always so censored.
As Bobby clears up the pronunciation problem, she turns her attention back to the communal food stuff. Drawing out bags of chips and even raw veggies for those that care about health food (on a camping trip?!), enough for sharing, she moves toward the fire. "No one's gonna starve tonight."
She gives Doug a smile as she settles down on a log dragged near the warming stones. "Natural. Yeah." She chuckles lightly. "Lots of open sky."
She flash Kurt another smile. "Thanks, elf." And laughs at his admonishment of their 'expedition leader'. She refrains from adding a saucy quip of her own. The youngsters may be old enough to appreciate and understand such things -- and evidently indulge in them as well, but she has no need to encourage them. At this given moment, at least.
"Canada's more than just Hockey. There's Curling and....maple syrup!" Cessily offers up. She stretches out the fingers of her left hand and uses her right slip marshmellows onto her improvised roasting sticks. "That's why I always used to come out. 'You have to get out of the city and see the real world, Cessily'", she says in a fake-masculine voice. Cessily sighs heavily. "Something wrong?" she asks Laura, sounding impatient. Weird girl might just be being weird again.
"Something I've thought about. Only really helps for exotic energy types though. Thermal is always around. Gravimetric, magnetic, solar and kinetic are always about, too. Don't generally need to carry those around. Electrical is pretty much anywhere in the city, though carrying around a battery pack would work. Stuff like psionic, photonic, and magical are the ones where it'd be most useful, but I don't exactly know how you'd store those, you know?" Jocelyn wasn't quite sure what existed to house those types of things. Maybe some magical artifact.
"I should probably see what all I brought for food," she comments as she stands and heads over ot her bag. Digging through it, she glances over at Laura and gives her a smile back. "Thanks," the woman offers to the various people who congratulated her on getting the fire going. Though at the comment about Molson, Jocelyn just smiles. "Saw plenty of that stuff floating through Detroit. Common enough to see it slip over the border," the woman says easily. She knew just what it was Laura was talking about. However, then all the food starts coming out, and she decides to save her food options for later.
"Definitely," Bobby tacks onto Kurt's encouragements of Jocelyn. He listens to the girl and nods. "Couldn't you get some kind of magical thing like an amulet and drain that?" he asks Jocelyn. Eyes turn to Amanda to see if she's got input since she knows magic better than Bobby. Accepting a hot dog, he sets about roasting it and a marshmallow up. The idea of a S'more dog crosses his ming but he shakes it off for now. That's an experiment for another time. As people start to tell him what he missed about Canada, Bobby just tilts his head to the side. "Joking, really..." he trails off. "Anyone needs a drink chilled, lemme know," he adds.
Flashing a wide grin at Kurt, Doug only waves the hot dog more so at Kurt, before impaling it on a stick and starting to roast it. Leaving Laura be, as she apparently was going to eat when she was good and ready, the young blonde nods in agreement at Bobby's words. "A pen light, a lighter... a sparkplug... heck, you could check out MacGyver and see if you get any ideas...'
Looking towards Cessily, Doug frowns, his attention shifting back towards Laura. "Something wrong?"
For Laura, what she's scenting would be odd, rotting meat mixed in with a strong -feeling- of ... well, not decay, but something that Amanda would likely sense as a strong -curse-. Not quite right, not quite fitting nature... but somehow -still- Canada. And the sense of it was growing stronger, coming closer...
Under other circumstance Laura might nod in agreement with Amandas 'open sky' comment. Instead, there's a slight glance at Cessily, and then at Dough as she mutters, "Don't know. Stay here." as she starts to get up.
All though at the mention of all those kinds of energy from Joeclyn, and the responses that are said to that, there is another silent glance from Laura at her room mate.
Then, without even another word, the cloned mutant girl tries to slink off, on her own towards the source of what ever that smell is.
Kurt takes those crisping wieners of his stick, blowing on his fingers as he does so, and puts them sizzling into their respective buns. Handing one off to Amanda, Kurt looks to Cessily as he holds off on that first bite. "Curling?" Ooooh.. that thing that they just had in the Olympics last year? "That? Why would anyone.."
With food still uneaten, his gaze moves back towards Laura, and when she offers the 'stay here', he shakes his head slowly and puts his food down. "Nein.." and it's a glance towards Doug before he continues, "There are a few of us that are good at scouting ahead. Branching out, one covers more ground, more eyes." And things that could be missed will not. Or, perhaps even 'the whole story' or more of the pieces at the very least, can be supplied.
He too, then, rises from his crouch, "Wait up.."
"Oh, storing magical energy and making it portable isn't so difficult," Amanda assures Jocelyn. Heck, most of the arsenal she's brought for the trip relies on that very fact. "Or, at least, the theory behind it isn't." The power expenditure to make the artefact, however, is something else again. Fortunately, she makes a habit of replenishing her supplies on a regular basis, given how cyclical her mystical strength is. "An amulet would work. Or a ring. Or even a coin. Anything that's small and portable. Preferably personal."
She also offers a smile to Laura. "There's better stuff out there than Molson's." Then again, to be fair, she's European. As strong as the Canadian stuff seems to most Americans, the European stuff is a step above that again.
But, as she glances to the feral girl and notes her demeanor change, the witch, herself, frowns and begins to rise. "Laura! Wait!" Her own expression grows serious, and she steps over the log, moving toward where she laid a satchel earlier. (A satchel Kurt would recognize as her 'bag of tricks' -- used most often when energies of the Winding Way are at low ebb... or when she's stuck in the middle of the hinterlands.) She glances back to the others. "Something out there. Something..." She searches for a way to describe it. "Not good." Another beat. She looks at Kurt. "Cursed."
Jocelyn rises. Jocelyn, hand still in her bag, looks around. "That's magical energy alright". The woman frowns, having not fished anything out of her bag yet, and floats a few feet up into the air. "Amanda. On the topic of absorbing magical energy, how bad of an idea would it be for me to suck this curse in? Generally I expel it out as a blast or bolt without any spell effects". Of course, if that curse gets right up on them, Jocelyn's natural energy shields are going to just go and absorb it anyway, so that point might be moot. The girl was looking around for the source of this curse now, trying to hone in with her energy sight to figure out where it was coming from.
Cessily holds her hand out over the fire, shifting her extended fingers to roll the marshmellows and toast them evenly. "Stay here?" she asks, making a face, including a deeply creased brow. "I think it's an excuse to drink, Mister Wagner," she says, keeping half an eye on Laura as she slinks off. "Since when can she senes magic?" Cessily asks. Her fingers curl back, marshmellows left to fall and burn up in the fire as the young x-man steels herself. "How can a curse stalk us?" she asks of nobody in particular.
Bobby pops his marshmallow into his mouth, apparently having toasted it to his liking faster than the others. As Laura and Kurt head off, Bobby stands up. Of course Amanda mentioning a curse and going for her bag has Bobby standing too. "Cwwrrrd?" he asks, mouthful of marshmallow making it very...challenging to understand him. "Careful with curses, Joce. Best to not try getting intimate with them if you don't have to," he warns, starting to ice up. Oddly enough his icy armor doesn't look the same. It's almost as if Bobby himself turned to ice. He then looks to Cessily. "It can if it's a person or animal that's cursed."
Abruptly there's a flash of light from deeper inside the forest. Not in the direction Laura was smelling stuff.
Moments later, a very singular sight enters the camp clearing: Jubilee, looking a bit sheepishly sulky. "Um, hi... I don't recommend asking Illyana for any favors anytime tonight. She's kind of in a bad mood." She shrugs off her pack and rubs the back of her neck, looking back the way she came. "Geez, it's not like I was /trying/ to be late. Somebody said /seven/. I didn't know they meant /AM/!"
Dropping his hot dog into the fire, Doug stands up. "Hey Laura! Wait, don't go off on your own..." he calls out. The late-arriving Jubilee is given a brief nod before the young blonde mutant starts to follow, just as the bushes rustles, and something -huge- bursts out, all muscles and sinews. A large furry white humanoid monster, with huge sharp claws and a large tail, it bellows, as it looms over Laura.
"WEN-DI-GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"... what the -hell- is that?" Doug exclaims, as he halts in his steps, uncertain to make of the large monster.
The moment Amanda mentions it, the fur on the back of Kurt's neck rises. He can feel it, though he's nowhere near as sensitive as, well.. Amanda. He's on his feet, and looking to Jocelyn, his brows rise, "Can you expend cursed energy as well? What happens when you take it into you?" It's a genuine question, and he looks to Bobby as the man pretty much echoes his thoughts, though he's a little slower at the question and opinion.
Using the shadows that fall, it becomes a little more difficult to discern the fuzzy blue elf, his outline seems to fade into the darkness.
It's a help now, mind, as the creature comes bursting out with a Wen-di-goooo, Kurt can at least be quite easily heard, "Oh.. mein Gott!" before, "Do not absorb it's energy! It.. was someone.. und we don't want to play 'Tag, you're it..'.
Beat.
"I'll distract it.. but it will be very difficult to bring down."
With those fateful words, Kurt takes point, as it were, and begins to harry it.. teleporting in to create a distraction, a target.. and he works very, very hard to keep ahead of the extremely dextrous creature..
Despite others telling her to wait, be it Kurt, Amanda, or even Doug. She doesn't even stop long enough to explain she doesn't smell magic to Cess, but instead the corrupted, and rotting smell that is hanging around what ever this curse is. Nor does she even comment on Jocelyn and Bobby's talk about magic. And she /certainly/ does not get a chance to respond to Jubilee arriving. Not as...
THAT bursts out.
It's enough that Laura almost jumps. But she still remains silent for a moment or two as...
- SNIKT!*
Yeah. Big threat that is trying to be all scary? Kurt can give Laura trouble later for not following orders. Not as she leaps at it, claws first as she tries to take a swipe.
"Bad," Amanda tells Jocelyn, speaking quickly now. "Depends on just what it is, though Bobby's right. It's probably a creature, not a spell." She moves toward the edge of the camp, trying to suss out some sense of it beyond 'bad news', her lecture undaunted. "Usually, when it comes to a curse, what goes in, must come out. So, whatever you expel will simply be the curse in another form -- probably even more unpredictable. May not be a spell when you're done with it, but black magic rarely plays by the rules. Try not to absorb more than you can help. There are other ways to deal with it."
She pulls a net of wire from her satchel, into which pieces of concrete, steel, and other representative bits of the city are woven. Casting it down on the ground, she swiftly begins to shape it into a circle around her. Yes, it's a casting circle. No, there's no guarantee it'll help, but it might. She's an urban witch, not a druid. So, it's better than roots and trees and flowers, in her book. She starts channelling a shielding spell into the net, just as the creature comes charging through the trees. Dropping to a crouch and throwing her arms out, she wills the shield to expand swiftly outward in the Wendigo's direction, echoing Kurt as she calls to Jocelyn: "Do NOT absorb THAT!"
"I'll give you a demo later, with some safer energy," Jocelyn says as she immediately drops from her flight, hand going right back into that bag. Her hand gripping something, she suddenly shoots back up into the air, hand curled around the handle of a curved blade which shines in the firelight. She wanted all her options for this fight, and while she didn't intend on killing the thing, it was an option. The woman then immediately flies up into a tree and lands on a solid branch. She's now to the right side of the Wendigo instead of in front of it. "Figured that out pretty quick not to touch it's energy!" She then pulls in a bunch of magnetic energy and attempts to drop a burst right at the feet of the Wendigo before following up by pulling in enough energy to charge herself physically to prevent herself from taking serious damage. Hopefully.
"The fuck!?" Cessily blurts out. Can they ever do anything normal? Just go camping? Like normal students? The answer appears to be a decided /no/. "Do these things just track mutants?" Cessily asks. As Laura goes all *snikt*, Cessily's forearms stretch and morph into long blades. "How hard can we stab it?" she calls towards the elder X-men. Cessily rushes forward, staying low and trying to slash at its legs as Jocelyn drops her blast and Laura slashes up high.
"IDidn't you hear it yell it's name? One of the next gen pokemon. They're really running out of ideas," Iceman replies almost automatically. Jokes, he's as fast with them as he is snowballs. He's never run into this thing himself but he's heard of it and he's instantly wishing they bribed Logan into coming along. "Just people with powers, Cess. Weird attracts weird," he comments, firing off a slushy mess of snow and ice at the Wendigo's face in hopes of temporarily blinding it.
"Joce? Why's everybody telling you not to absorb stuff?" Jubilee asks, having walked into the middle of this conversation.
Which is quickly interrupted by a surprise visit by Bigfoot... er, Wendigo! She doesn't know, really, but what it's yelling is as good of a name as any! "Oh, crapsicles..." she mutters, dropping her pack next to a tree. "I am /totally/ in the mood for this. /Not/. I guess toasting marshmallows is gonna have to wait..."
But for now, clobberin' time. And she's decidedly impressed by the teamwork she's seeing. "Keep moving! It looks like a total Schwartzie-monster!" she calls, then suddenly can't speak. She's giggling too hard at Iceman's remark. He seems to have the same idea she does, so she dashes for the flank, ready to hit it from a different direction. It certainly shouldn't be watching for her, with all these people trying to carve it up like a Thanksgiving turkey!
Oh... crap! There hadn't been any news on -that- in ages, and Doug had thought it was cured at some point. Someone -must- have had re-activated the curse somehow...
Retreating as he tries to scan its body language, Doug winces. Yeah, hungry, very very hungry. And judging by the way it was behaving... Right. Definitely retreating...
The Wendigo, on the other hand, had no such illusions. Amanda's shield holds briefly, before it clashes against the curse of the Wendigo and gives way. Because the Wendigo's curse was a -natural- thing for the woods, a punishment for befouling mother nature's Canada.
Impossibly swift and quick for its size, the large monster brings its huge claws down, trying to tag Nightcrawler, before it gets blinded momentarily by Iceman's snowballs and slashing through a large tree in the process, leaving deep, deep claws marks deep into the trunk.
Its skin was incredibly -tough-, and worse yet, as Cessily's blades and Laura's claws cut through the beast, blood flows, then stenches and heals, quickly, leaving an even more enraged beast as it grasps for Laura, trying to get a firm hold on her. Because if it did... it was -CHOMPING- time with thsoe -huge- sharp teeth, redolent with the scent of rotting meat and decaying maggots...
Kurt can feel the magicking behind him, and he's known Amanda more than long enough to know what it is she'll be doing. Defensive position, then offensive when she can. He's the same, truly. But his 'defensive' usually means that he's setting others up to do 'their thing'.
"Cessily, nein.. find something else.. you're not front line!" Kurt has that moment of distraction as he checks to see what the others are doing.
Jocelyn, check. Laura, check.
"It'll take a great deal to get through.. und mind the claws. If you think Laura's hurts?" Beat. "Und it heals.. quickly."
Bobby's offrances to the face is met with approval. "Keep it off-balance.." which means Kurt may not get too badly sliced! "I don't think I am destined for a 'normal' life.. I will have to live vicariously through soap operas now." For normalcy?
Jubilee's observations about keeping moving is met with a laugh as he flips up and around the creature, working rather hard to not be hit with those razor sharp claws. "Be careful.."
As it goes after Laura again, Kurt *bamfs* in and doesn't do any real damage, but he does manage to try and kick it in the head to regain attention. "Even if you gut it, it will heal.." Beat. "Mostly."
Yes, for the moment Laura slashes high. But between her being one of, if not the shortest person here she can only do that so much. In the long run, slashing low is a lot easier for her.
Not that it does much good. not as she notices how quickly it heals from her slashes as well as Cess's slashes.
Then again, as she tries to press her attack, Laura can't avoid that smell. Worse as she tries to slash again, she gets grabbed by the arm. Which means she can more than likely be hefted up, if not get chomped in the arm. That is all while she tries to get free by slashing with her other hand, and of course kicking with her foot claws.
"Freeze the legs!"
Amanda's bag of tricks is diverse -- for those that need to know. Potions of varying effects (both offensive and defensive). One-shot artefacts (sooooo much easier to make) like little magic grenades. (Magic missile, anyone? Just in case her magic bolts fail.) OH. And healing spells. Definitely healing spells... though they'll not truly substitute for good medical facilities. They'll keep all but fatal wounds from being, well, yes, fatal.
But, for now, her concentration is on the shield, intending to use it to slow the thing down -- herd it into an area more favourable to the defending mutants. "I knew I shouldn't have left my beastiary at home," she mutters. Instead, she has to rely on good, old fashioned memory to remind her how best to dispell a Wendigo curse.
As the shield shatters (unsurprisingly), she grunts with the feedback inevitable from that sort of attack, and staggers back a step. "Joce!" she calls sharply, now. "Absorb this!" She balls her hands into fists and sends a pair of magic bolts flashing by the girl, close enough for siphoning, toward the creature's muzzle. Urban energy against nature's curse. That oughta make for some interesting fireworks. Maybe she'll loosen a couple of teeth. As Yukon Cornelius might say, "Bumbles can't eat without their chompers!"
She takes another step back, once she's fired and looks about swiftly. "I've got an idea! Kurt, Bobby, Laura, Jubes! Keep it busy! Doug! Joce! Cess! I need your help! I need a bigger casting circle!"
Yes, Kurt. She's going to do something stupid. And it's probably going to hurt. Even if it works.
The magical bolts Amanda tosses out are literally yanked towards Jocelyn, who absorbs them into her hands. One bolt is fired, and those who can sense magic will be able to tell it the energy is magical, but it isn't any particular spell. Instead, it's basically a dark purple bolt that hurtles towards the Wendigo. That is followed closely by Jocelyn jumping out of the tree and accelerating to her full flying speed of 100 MPH. She reaches back and with inhuman reflexes launches a flying punch at the side of the Wendigo's head as she passes by, at the same time discharging the rest of that magical energy into a point-blank blast to it's head. Superhuman strength plus 100 mph flight plus a magical energy blast HAS to at least stun the stupid thing, right? Right?
At Amanda's request, the woman flies over towards Amanda and lands near her. "Tell me where to go," Jocelyn states, watching the Wendigo carefully.
Cessily makes a slash at the Wendigo's legs, cutting in to the flesh which heals, far more promptly than she'd like, certainly. Unlike Laura, she's not some super slicey girl. Unlike Amanda, she's not some amazing sorceress. Nope, just a morphing metal girl, which does make her good at going for the legs. "Woah!" Cessily exclaims, as Jocelyn goes zooming past her. She turns towards Amanda, her features looser than before, now like she's half-melting. But she's Mercury, and that's normal for her. "Yes! Circle! Right!" she says, dodging past Wendigo go get over and assist Amanda.
"Don't let the thing bite you either!" Bobby calls out. He nods to Kurt's assesment of things. "Cessily, don't get close. If you can, evac anyone that needs it. You've got the longest reach of us without teleporting," he calls. He laughs at Amanda's bumble line. "Amanda, I owe you a drink when we get back! Maybe even a date!" he calls. "Way ahead of you, Laura," he calls, taking to one of his slides and starting to fire off frigid beams at the Wendigo's legs. He's trying to freeze those limbs to the ground and he even goes for the tail too, attempting to freeze that to a nearby tree. He nods to Amanda though. "One busy fuzzball coming up!"
And from the left side, the frothing beast gets a stiff dose of plasma-based fireworks, aiming high as Cessily and Bobby both aim low. Jubilee pours it on, gritting her teeth and letting her power really go. It's not like hurting this thing is a problem, right? If they can knock it down, it should slow it down a lot, especially if they can /keep/ it down. "Hurry, witchy-poo! We can't hold this thing much longer!"
A craving for -human flesh- had led to the curse of the Wendigo being visited on cannibals in the far north. So it was no surprise that the Wendigo took a chomp out of Laura's arm. The attacks was taking its toll, however, being slashed, hacked, and iced, causing it to start losing its balance, before being frozen to the ground at three different points. Its wounds heals, but slower and slower as certain attacks start hitting the same points. Roaring, it flings Laura at Nightcrawler like a bludgeon, as the ice around its legs begin to strain, cracking ever so slightly...
"I'm coming!" Doug exclaims, as he runs over. Doing his best to follow instructions, the young blonde starts helping make a bigger circle. "What're you going to do...?" he asks.
While Amanda gets others to help with her magic... As Jubilee goes all out with her ranged attack.. As Bobby tries to freeze things... As Jocelyn goes flying towards The Wendigo... As others help with that spell or otherwise attack...
Laura is sent flying. And for the time being, one of her arms is practically useless. But if one could look really close at said arm, they'd notice that it already looks like it's healing.
Evan as the clawed mutant girl ends up crashing into everyones favorite fuzzy elf!
Amanda is digging through her satchel, even as Jocelyn hits the beast with the power of a speeding freight train. Thus, when the girl lands beside her, the witch already has her hands on several useful tools -- a handful of crystals, chips of concrete stone and metal shavings, and a bag of salt. "We need to make a circle with these," she tells the three around her. "Right around the damned thing!" Preferably with it NOT likely to step out of it.
She points to a spot on the east side of her wire casting circle. "Start the circle there," she tells her three helpers. "Space things evenly and have it meet up here." She points to a section on the west side of her circle. "Don't leave any gaps wider than a foot or it'll escape and we'll be foobarred. Quickly!" She gives Doug a tight smile, the danger of her plan reflected in her eyes. "I'm going to try to dispel the curse."
That said, she centers herself in her circle, spreads her hands, and begins chanting a preparation for her spell.
Kurt, dodging the creature's latest attack, is caught momentarily off-guard by Laura as she hurtles through the air. At the last second, he twists and catches her. Together in his startlement, they bamf, reappearing several feet beyond the creature's reach. "Are you alright, Fraulein" he asks, righting the young woman on the ground beside him and disentagling. His head turns as Amanda calls to him and he glances between her and the clone girl. He'll not leave Laura until he knows she's okay. Fortunately, Amanda's only a short bamf away once he knows Laura's fine.
Well, that seemed reasonably easy to Jocelyn. Taking up the offered materials, Jocelyn takes to the air and starts working on the circle, following Amanda's instructions. There isn't anything fancy going on here. Jocelyn is just following orders. She notes Laura go flying, but she trusts the girl to heal quickly enough to be alright. Though if she sees that curse transfer somehow, she's keeping an eyeball out for that. She doesn't know how the curse transfers, and the last thing she wants is it entering one of her friends.
Cessily dodges down and slides past the Wendico to Amanda's side. "Right. Dose it need to be continuous or just...circling?" she asks. She flows out and starts setting up the circle as instructed, heading the opposite direction from Jocelyn. Cessily moves in quick bursts, a run, place, and then a run again. It'll all be set up pretty quickly.
Iceman curses as he notices the ice straining. Sliding around behind the beast, he fires off some more beams to reinforce his frigid bindings. "Kurt! Laura!" he calls out, trying to see if they're alright. When it looks like they are, he puts attention back at the Wendigo and launches another frozen beam at it. This time he's trying to form up a frozen muzzle on the beast. He knows it won't stop it but he's trying to keep it distracted.
"Laura!" Oh, fudge... that looks like it'll hurt. But the California girl doesn't have time to watch her friend land. That word from Amanda was a summons. And she was doing good, too! Muttering something rather emphatic under her breath, Jubilee smacks Wendigo with another massive blast, then dashes for Amanda's chosen spot.
At least she's quick to arrive. "Okay... circle. With dusty stuff. Around that thing." She takes the pouch that Jocelyn doesn't and hurries off to do the job.
Running circles around this monster is /not/ what she'd do if she had a choice. But she's not so good a runner as Jocelyn, so Jubilee has to make more than one circle, one to pour, the other to watch for gaps so she can fill them in. And the whole time, she's keeping a wary eye on Tall, Furry, And Gruesome, so she can be where his claws are not. "Camping... I am /so/ never doing this again!"
The Wendigo staggers underneath the various blasts from Jubilee and Iceman. Its muzzle is iced over just as it finally breaks free, but the beast is too enraged to stop for anything, as it storms for the closest target. Unable to scream its distinctive cry, it instead turns its attention towards the flashiest blasts in the growing darkness, stampeding towards Jubilee.
"Hell, faster, faster..." Doug starts tracing. It seems to get easier and easier, for some reason, for the young mutant, as though he was starting to comprehend what Amanda wanted at an intuitive level...
Once she's free of Kurt, Laura just says two words. Two simple words before she tries to charge directly towards the fight again.
"I'll heal."
Yeah, her arm is doing that already, but it's not exactly usable just yet. Thus even as she charges in, it kind of hangs there. But hey, she has another arm and both feet with claws she /can/ use. Heck, if she gets half a chance she'll even try to do a jump kick at the Canadian monster. Just so she can /hopefully/ buy the others some more time to set up what ever Amanda is planning to do.
Amanda, were she actually paying attention to Jubilee's words, would agree with her: Camping sucks. This is just another moment of proof.
However, one of the best things about working with X-Men-related mutants, Amanda can also attest, is that they typically work well together and they're typically really, really fast. Fast is a definite plus in this situation, 'cause Bumble ain't going down easily. So the faster the curse is dispelled, the better.
As the circle completes, and her chanting begins to take effect, those most sensitive to magic and energy will sense the closure of the circle like the single clang of a large bell ringing terribly close by. It fairly vibrates through the air.
Assured Laura will be fine, Kurt bamfs just as that magical gong thrums through him, reappearing by Amanda's side. "Leibling," he says softly, laying a hand on her shoulder, worry in his eyes. She glances to him, the look in her eyes simultaneously grateful and apologetic. But not very reassuring. This is going to suck as much for him as for her, since, out of everyone here, she's most familiar with him. And she's at half-strength at best.
The spell requires a lot of energy. The Wendigo curse is one laid down by Elder Gods -- and one that is usually well deserved. Cannibalism is a multifaceted offense. One doesn't remove divine curses easily.
Away from the city, her natural element -- strange as that sounds -- Amanda is at a disadvantage. More than that, Saskatchewan is a goodly distance away from New York, where, in North America, her power is strongest. She can pull energy from the forest, but it doesn't come easily or willingly. Thus, as her own personal reserves begin to drain, she's forced to start drawing upon others in an effort to keep the environmental effect down to a minimum.
She draws first from Kurt, his physical proximity and familiarity, not to mention his demonic nature, making siphoning from him easiest. But, it won't be long until others start to feel the effect of her pull, as well. At first, it will feel like a gentle wind pressing against flesh. Soon, however, it feels more like a growling vortex.
The magic spreads around the Wendigo washing over it like paint poured from a cosmic bucket... but it also leaks into the surrounding environment, waking the plants, soil, and rocks, causing the forest to come alive in protest outside the circle.
Jocelyn doesn't have the codename 'Channel' for no reason. She simply opens herself up to the energy around her, letting herself feel the flow of energy and more easily let Amanda pull in as much as she wanted. In essence, energy was the thing that Jocelyn did, so to speak, and so she was more than willing to play battery and filter for Amanda. Even as she does so, she attempts to siphon up some of that stray energy that is going to cause the forest to start doing bad things to them. This does mean the girl isn't paying much attention to the Wendigo, as her attention is focused purely on the energy around them at the moment.
Cessily....can't do that. Nope, she's relegated to being a runner and placer, which she does with gusto. Ceccily makes it all the way around the Wendigo and looks up. "Distriact?" she asks Amanda, before stretching her arms back out into clubs. "Hey, ugly!" she calls up, stretching her legs to make herself taller. It's about as close to a puffer fish as she comes. Cessily takes a swing with a big club-arm towards the Wendigo's head.
"Whoa there!" Bobby yells, letting ice spikes rain down at the Wendigo as it heads for Jubilee. He's trying to get its attention and keep it from going after a student. The sudden spellwork of Amanda distracts him, Bobby putting a hand to his head. "What the hell..." he can't even get a joke out, one of those living trees shattering his slide and sending him plummeting into the trees.
"Oh, fudgesicles... walking carpet incoming!" Jubilee yelps, tossing aside her now-useless bag of ritual dust and throwing up both hands to blast. Only this time the blast is aimed at its head, a blinding rain of white stroboscopic plasmoids! "Can't hit what ya can't see, ugly!"
And then... earthquake? Jubilee screeches to a halt, looking around in alarm. Right, woods. Left, woods. Ahead, woo... "YEEK!" Suddenly she's being lifted off the ground by the back of her heavy coat, like a kitten being snatched by the scruff of the neck! "Hey, what's the big idea?" she snaps, looking around.
It's a tree. A /tree/ grabbed her! "Whoa..." the kid murmurs, blinking in dismay. Struggle as she might, she can't seem to break its grip! "I'm stuck!"
Coming to the realization that the circle was the best place to be in the process of drawing it, Doug dives into the circle, calling out to the others. "Get over here!"
The warning was too late for some, as Cessily manages to enter the circle, but her life energy, being much more effective interacting with Amanda's spell causes the metallic mutant to pass out much sooner than others.
The trees and natural wildlife lashes out at Bobby, entangling him with creeping vines, trying to secure him as they react to Amanda's spell...
Even the Wendigo, having been thwarted by Bobby, was slowed down, as the very roots and grasses of the ground rear up from the frozen tundra. Its angry roar breaks the ice muzzle, only inches away from the entangled Jubilee as it strains to break free of its bonds, leaving the young Asian to experience fully what Laura had been able to detect from a distance with her keen scent.
As the plants and the earth lash out, Laura keeps trying to move. To get closer. At some points she has to hack and slash, which slows her down.
And yet, as she gets closer, the clawed mutant retracts her claws from her good arm, reaches into her pocket, which she throws towards the Wendigo as she notices its attention is on her friend and ally. If she's lucky, very lucky, it may even end up in the things mouth.
That is before she tries to punch it, before popping her claws at the punch connects, all so hopefully it will pay more attention to her than Jubilee.
Oh, what is it that's thrown? Candy. Mentos specifically.
"Freshmaker!"
Amanda's voice rises in volume and cadence as she brings the spell to its climax. Behind her, his hands on her shoulders and beads of sweat on his brow, Kurt collapses, sliding down the back of her body. Amanda staggers a little at his unexpected weight.
The surrounding forest pitches and writhes as her magic goes inevitably awry in this wild place. Tree limbs reach out to grasp at mutant bodies. Grass tendrils snake up legs in an effort to bind and strangle. Rocks and clods of dirt fly through the air as tree roots whip out of the ground in protest, lashing out as well against the mystical intruders.
Inside the circle, however, the spell should be beginning to have its desired effect. Beneath all that Bumble fur, teeth, and claws, there's a human being. And his true nature should be beginning to come forth.
Amanda pitches to her knees as the glade roils, still chanting. But the spell is taking its toll on her, even with Jocelyn's remarkable channelling to aid her. There's a limit to how much energy the witch can channel -- particularly in unfamiliar wilderness. The next few moments will make or break this. Either the curse will be dispelled or all hell is going to break loose. Either way, Amanda, if the blood beginning to trickle from her nose is any indication, is only moments away from passing out, herself.
Jocelyn continues focusing, everything else around here. She's not far from passing out herself, and likely the moment that Amanda's spell finishes, for good or bad, is the moment when Jocelyn is going to pass out. The teen drops to one knee, letting the energy pass through her while she filters as much as she can, but whatever way this fight is going, Jocelyn is going to have to be told about it later, because as soon as Amanda's spell finishes, Jocelyn is going down for a nap.
At first, there's just the sound of wood hitting ice and Bobby yelling at the tree from the tree the icy mutant fell into. Then there's a burst of frosty fury as the whole tipe half of the tree gets frozen. Moments later, an annoyed Bobby pushes his way out of the frozen leaves and hops back up onto a slide. When he sees the beast heading for Jubilee, he fires off an icy beam and tries to raise an ice war between the mutant and the monster.
Okay... from bad to worse. Not only is she hanging from her coat after being picked up by a freaking /tree/, she's now only inches away from a blinded, enraged monster.
- ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAR!!!*
Correction: A blinded, enraged monster with simply /incredible/ bad breath. Jubilee can't help wincing and raising her arms to protect her face. "Ew! Dude, /say/ it, don't /spray/ it! Total yuck-palooza!"
And then something clatters into the monster's mouth. Several small, white somethings. That's all she can see before a wall of white grows into existence between herself and Mister Furry Halitosis. Ice! "Bobby, when we get out of this, I'm /so/ gonna kiss you!" That brilliant, grateful smile? Yup, just for him.
But for now, she's got to get out of this tree's grasp and get away. She looks up, spots the branch that's holding her, and focuses a spray of plasmoids on it. /Hot/ plasmoids. "Okay, totally leaving now, Mister Barkskin... I hope..."
While Jubilee manages to free herself, and Bobby and Laura are fighting their way through Nature's revolt, the Wendigo's roaring as it pounds on the ice wall slows, vines growing stronger and stronger, before it's covered up by the creeping tundra inching up it, until it ends up being buried in a huge mass of earth and vines...
As soon as she slumps, however, so too do the trees and vines and grass and rocks. There's a horrendous clatter, the sound of protesting wood, tumbling earth and rocks raining down when the source of the magic is cut off.
Beneath the tangle of green within the wider circle, it's possible the groaning of a very human man might be heard -- the Wendigo's erstwhile vessel.
Final count? Cessily, Jocelyn, Kurt, and Amanda are definitely out for the count. Everyone else? Well, they're no doubt battered, to say the least. But, at least, everyone's alive. Perhaps, though, a quick phone call back to the mansion and a pickup in the Blackbird (as opposed to anything mystical) might be in order? Because... Yeah. Camping sucks.