| Making You Better Part 1 | |||||
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| What: The X-men and Vegas residents go to investigate something strange. | |||||
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To those in the Mansion Kitty Pryde came with a plethora of Evidence (derived from here: http://heromux.com/2014.09.18_-_Prelude:_Making_You_Better ). Something rotten was happening in Vegas. More than the usual rotten stuff that happened in Vegas. At least five mutants had gone missing, she suspected at least seven, and they were all in connection to Horizons Medical Clinic. The place was a former mental clinic with a bad reputation, to say the least, but had since bought out by a local hospital that recently came under new management. Local mutants, Lucy Galganske and Alfonso Young to name a couple of them, have been missing for weeks now. Possibly some humans too, the jury was still out on them.
The only thing the five victims had in common, and this was with her toiling away at the computers in the mansion, were the following:
Age. They were all young adults ages 18 to 25.
Lifestyle. They were all active somehow. Some enjoyed the outdoors, others went to the gym regular, etc. At the end of the day they were in decent to good shape.
Everything else differed. Hobbies, educational level, aspirations, heritage, gender, sexual preference, all other categories differed. So it was really hard to figure out a pattern with the victims, if any.
The X-men had time to plan an attack. Figure out how they were going to do this. They knew the facility was involved somehow, thanks to Kitty's detective work. However, it was nothing concrete. There was no smoking gun when it came to proof. Everything was built upon hunch and circumstances.
Vegas, everyone had something to do in the city. Fine dining, burlesque, gambling, odd attractions with guys that say nothing while having blue painted faces that bang on objects, the city had something for everyone. People that were visiting the city as a guest, like Kilroy, found themselves near a mall near the central part of the city. In the place there was a popular mall. Like all other malls built in a more centralized location there were back lots, nooks, crannies, and other places to get lost in. Most were built for workers to have private parking or a place to get a quick smoke break in without customers seeing such behavior. The average joe often became disturbed if the Motherhood employee was caught with a Malboro in his or her mouth. It didn't matter if that customer smoked, people reacted oddly to those that were supposed to wait on them even if these people engaged in activities the customer themselves did.
In one of these back parking lots was a White Van. The vehicle lacked windows and any distinguishing marks and the backdoors were open to take in cargo. It was just a generic van that may have got some looks and an occasional "Creep alert!" type of comment, but they went mostly unnoticed by the group at large. Two individuals, one male, the other female, both about average height, were helping a person between them. At a glance the situation would have looked like this was just two good friends helping out their mutual counterpart. To Kilroy there was enough subtle changes to make it off. First, there was no conversation between the three. The two helping the third didn't do anything to check on the person. A good friend would have asked questions, made sure their out of commission friend was still there, panic would have been on their face if the friend needed a hospital. None of those signs were there. Plus the male and the female were wearing non-descript clothing. Jeans with nothing unusual about them, no holes, no acid wash colors, just a dark pair and a light pair. T-shirts had no logos, same for the hoodies they wore, and the hoods were big enough to conceal most of their faces. For a guy that had money to influence bad people he knew what a kidnapping looked like.
The X-men had to have a strategy to make it into the city. They could have taken an aircraft to a private terminal at McCarren International Airport. To get around the city they would have needed a rental car, and other things if they didn't want to bust into a place in uniform. Or at least look normal until they did decide to kick down a door.
Luckily Kitty's notes were detailed. Every place she went to was marked on a series of maps she left with the file. Every street she walked down. This path included taking a walk to the very same mall. She asked questions because a few two missing people worked there. Others were regulars in a few places. At first she thought this was the connecting piece of the puzzle, but she couldn't confirm if two of them had any ties to the place. The Mall, much like the clinic, was a location equal driving distance from each missing person. Yes, these people lived on different sides of the city, but there was a central part of Vegas that was equal distance between them. The Mall, much like the Clinic, was in that area. Any X-men keeping their eye out near the mall would have seen the Van in a back, relatively abandoned parking lot, with the doors open and two non-descript people helping a passed out person toward the vehicle. With all of Kitty's notes something just screamed wrong.
Kilroy is in Vegas for totally different reasons than the X-men. He's here to visit the spirit of Gambling, one of the Gold who was getting the crap beaten out of it by other vengful spirits. Right now he's just sitting at a bar, pondering events gone by, looking at people desperately throwing their money away in hopes of getting more. He considers replacing it, but they'd just throw it away if they were there instead. He sighs and feels...weary. There is someting missing. But as he sits in the casino near the mall, he gets an odd tingling in the back of his mind from the economy that something important is here, and someone important is here.
As he spots the van, and the individuals, he knows something is wrong. Something that must be stopped. Which suddenly reminds him of unfinished business with X-Force. He gets a grim look on his face. That was someone else he'd have to deal with before he left. But now? Fornow these guys were going to be stopped. He walks onto the street and has an invisible Rai stone just above their heads, ready to cause damage, but doesn't yet. Something stops him from merely crushing it...and instead he begins to follow the money. Just whose van is this? Who are these people?
The Rai stone is ready, but not yet.
Roberto has had some experience with hired kidnappings, too. So although he has been grumbling the whole drive over about what a dead-end he thinks this mall is going to be, when they park the car -- a pricey sports car that he sprang for himself, rather than a Kia he would have been able to bill Xavier for -- he spots the group behaving oddly. He's halfway through changing into his X-men uniform by that point, which means that when he wordlessly steps out of the car, he's wearing skintight sleeveless black and yellow from the waist up, and ordinary pairs of jeans and sneakers below.
"Bobby. That van. You see it?" he says, his voice serious. "I don't like this."
Roberto da Costa congratulates!
Bobby's been rambling on about enjoying Vegas the whole time. Even if he's pretty sure its a dead end too, he's trying to provide a counter to Roberto's grumbling. The sports car is definitely appreciated though Bobby did his own grumbling about not getting to drive. He's changing into his uniform too...which for him is stripping. So when he steps out of the car he's in jeans and sneakers...and his shirt is unbuttoned.
"I don't like it either. Gotten worse reviews than the Blue Man Group," he remarks, nodding to the question. "Which is just a cheap knock off of our blue dudes," he adds.
As both groups looked on they could see the people lay the passed out person in the van. Only when Kilroy walk out did they stop. "We're just taking her home," the male side. Kilroy could see brown hair, cut short, and while the clothes were a little baggy the guy was in decent shape with a bit of a town. He looked about twenty four. The girl working with him was half-caucasian, half-something else as she had dark hair, probably shoulder length, the hoodie made it hard to figure out the exact length. To emphasize annoyance with Kilroy the male caused a small spark of electricity to ride through his hands, "Go away."
The Roberts were able to see Kilroy walk out in front of the van. Then an intense stare down after the passed out girl was loaded into the van and the doors were closed. Whoever the male assalaint was his hand sparked with electricity. How the energy sparked for that moment told them, being kinetic based mutants themselves, that this electrokinetic has a good handle on his skills. How the energy just flowed naturally. Everything had the potential to go downhill real fast. The girl that was part of the apparent kidnapping did nothing, but stand there.
Kilroy wasn't a hero any more, if he ever had been, but he still didn't kill needlessly and slowly dangled the stone, floating in the air, lightly tapping the back of Sparky McWonderspark's head so that it was a distratction. He began to summon and create his staff. He hadn't intended to fight these guys, but as his armor appeared on him invisibly, he noted, "Dude...you have no idea what you're doing." He hadn't had a chance to investigate much of the ownership of the van due to the distracting taser. That was just as fine...he was going to distract them.
"Ice under the tires, Bobby. We don't want them speeding off before we can have a word," Roberto says quietly to his teammate. Then, more loudly, he addresses the strangers: "Excuse me! Is your friend having some sort of trouble? Maybe we can help."
He's relying on the combination of the offer of assistance and his visible unstable molecule suit to pretty much scream 'superhero.' This tends to provoke a response -- one that can be useful in determining someone's intentions.
Granted, at the moment Iceman looks more like he's getting ready for his shift at Hotbods. But still.
"On it," Bobby whispers back, fingers wiggling a little. He focuses his power, putting a nice thick set of ice patches under the tires. He even made a point to make the ice climb up the side of the tires as well. That van wouldn't be going anywhere until someone chipped it free. Once that's done, he nods to Roberto and then reaches up to tie his bandana on. It doesn't scream superhero as much as Berto's uniform but there is an X-logo on it and he's shifting into his organic ice form.
Roberto's announcement caught the attention of the two people, "We're fine. We just want to get our friend home," the male replied his voice was curt, but held at an even level. Turning back to Kilroy they missed the ice going under the tires. Then something clunked the man who got jerked forward. Whatever clunked him didn't do much, but guessing that Kilroy was the cause brought anger to the man's eyes. As Bobby suited up with the bandana, and Roberto was there looking quite swanky in his attire, the man struck by the object became angry. Only his eyes held that emotion. Eletricity build in them and flowed from his hands. Thrusting two fingers forward the electrical teen tried shooting Kilroy at near pointblank range with a bolt of lightning.
Wind started to pick up as Bobby and Robert moved closer. By now the female was moving closer. Her arms extended and they may have been reminded of Storm except there was no rain or dark clouds. The only change was the wind. Her eyes narrowed and a small concentrated wind tried to carry Roberto in the air. She didn't know of Sunspots powers.
Kilroy is pretty powerful. And that has let him take more and more chances as time has gone on but the basic lessons taught him early in his career, before he learned all his tricks with rai stones, and coin armor staves which was...he was a glass cannon...and work in the shadows meant work to live later...not only was his armor blown apart by the lightning bolt, but the very maerial he made it out of, copper, conducted the electricity to make the damage worse. Kilroy is knocked back a dozen feet and spasming with a scorch mark on his chest.
The wind attack does remind Roberto of Storm. And, specifically, of the way the windrider uses micro-gusts like this one to power her own flight. Never one to back down from a new extreme sport, the Brazilian kicks off gently from the ground, attempting to surf with the air current rather than fight against it.
Turns out there's more to being Storm than gusts and panache. He leaves the ground, tips over immediately, and has absolutely no luck righting himself by shifting his own weight. He tumbles through the air for a solid handful of seconds before snapping, "Foda-se," cloaking himself in the shadow and fire that is his Sunspot form, and firing a blast of coronal thrust to launch himself straight upward into the fortifying Nevada sunlight.
"Not a word!" he calls down to Bobby. "That would have been //really cool// if it worked right!"
Bobby finishes his transformation by the time the winds start to blow. He lifts an arm to shield his face against the gusts. He glances over as Kilroy gets zapped and then sighs. When Roberto goes airborne, Bobby has to bite back a laugh. "Leave the cool to me," he says, making a motion like throwing a bowling ball. Rather than a big heavy ball aiming for pins, Bobby lets an ankle-high wave of snow and slush issue forth. When it gets close to the windy woman, he directs it to pop up at her in hopes of distracting and disorienting her with a face full of snow.
With Kilroy taken out, at least temporarily, the male mutant smiled triumphantly. A split second later that look of triumphant turned to agony. He extended his back leg enough to use it to brace himself against the ground. By extending his leg before the strike it was lined up perfectly for the stone, that Kilroy once held up via concentration, to crush the second it landed. Screaming in pain the teen trashed on the ground virtually pinned unless he wanted to turn the bottom of his leg into a stump.
Hearing those screams the van started to peel off. The ice had taken the van by surprise it jerked a lot, and for a split second looked like it was going to tip. Then by a miracle, or really good driving, the van corrected itself and avoided a crash.
Roberto was picked up by the wind. It did take a moment to center himself and find his footing, so to speak, and he was in the nightsky no problem. The wind had not carried him away.
Bobby went through the motion of creating snow and slush with his bowler throw. Just as the teen planned the materials just flew up into the wind-controllers face. Between the confusion of getting suddnely struck by snow and the split second wall of snow in her vision the wind died down. Now there was an opening for anyone to pounce as there was a disoriented oppenant. Unfortunately now there was a moving van to stop too.
Situation looked pretty dire for our heroes. Yes it did. But the Gambler always paid his debts. And this was going down in HIS town, not cool. He owed moneybags for stopping those @#$@#$# animals and cacti spirits (Cacti spirits....REALLY? He still couldn't believe it!) but as he floated in the spirit world and observed the unfair odds he smiled. Just one favor but it was a big one. He was sure Kilroy would take it. And if he didn't, well, that just made him look like a chump didn't it? He snapped his fingers and suddenly long long odds of the Van for spark plug failure just happened....making them not work so well.
Even on his present ballistic course, it's easy for Roberto to spot the van getting away. He arcs in the air, then fires himself toward it with another burst of thrust, course correcting as he goes. Pure powered flight like this is excessively wasteful of his energy reserve, but stopping the van is his top priority.
Fortunately, it's a big target: he lands on its roof, denting the bodywork and giving himself some bruises that he's going to regreat tomorrow. Of course, at that moment, some kind of engine trouble hits, and he slides forward and flops onto the hood. Holding onto a windshield wiper for dear life, the Brazilian Balrog lifts the other hand, wreathed in crackling solar fire, and aims it straight at the driver. His implication should be clear.
Iceman wasn't really the pouncing type. That was more a Beast, Wolverine, or Nightcrawler thing. Or Toad but who wants to think about him? He doesn't let the chance pass him by though. He took a running start, icing the ground to slide along it as if it were one of his slides. He ducked low and tried to knock windy woman's legs out from under her so she'd fall into the snow. Hard enough to hurt but not cause any serious injury.
No curses came from the driver as the Van began to jerk forward a little as it tried to move with dying spark plugs. Roberto landed on the roof and then his body gave a thud as he landed on the roof. The driver looked at the mutant, but tried to keep going even with the sparkplugs going and the threat QUITE visible.
With the air controller already blinded adn trying to dig away snow his follow up attack went unnoticed. Thanks to Bobby's move she was up and landed on the ground HARD. Wind whipped around her moments later and she was up. A moment later she wobbled a little thanks to the pain. When she fell the impact of the fall went toward her head. So, she was up but wobbly.
The Gambler WINCED as his actions caused Berto to nearly curbstomp himself. That was uncool. But, the favor was still paid. He was in charge of gambling, not stopping human kidnapping. Let the priests deal with that. He tisked, poor kids. As he slowly faded into the background he idly wondered ifthe favor at waking Kilroy might have been more effective...oh well.
"Oh, voce esta //fudido// agora," Roberto snaps, reverting to Portuguese as he usually does to swear. He's not actually going to give the guy a lethal sunburn, tempting though it may be, but he is going to push off from the windshield, sneakers hitting the pavement in front of the van, and deadlift the whole front end of the vehicle off the ground. "Bad van! No airbrush!" he yells as he lifts the bumper right over his head, braces one-armed, and punches the nearest wheel straight off the axel.
Spinning about, Iceman pumps a fist. "Strike!" he calls as his target falls. His smile turns into a little pout when he sees the woman getting back up though. "Okay, going for the spare..." he mutters, forming a snowball in his hand. Of course he's neglected a few things. Like the fact that he's still sliding along the ground-slide...and that sneakers aren't very good for control on ice unlike his boots. So as he's winding up to throw the snowball, he doesn't see the street light he's headed for.
BAM!
Iceman hits the pole and wipes out, snowball flying off wildly in Kilroy's general direction rather than Bobby's intended target. "No one saw that," Iceman groans, untangling himself from the heap he landed in.
BAM! The tire flung off the vehicle and bounced like a ball as it hit the parking lot. Despite having one well missing the driver tried to keep the van going. Sadly, it was a front well drive vehicle. Between the wheel and the sparkplugs, the van was dead. If the Van was set down the duo could see the Van was trying to move, but it just couldn't. Seeing the options the driver opted to...run away. Getting out of the passenger side he tried to sprint away. The driver was a good runner like they probably ran marathons on the weekends. However, the vehicle was left behind...as was the person inside it.
Bobby struck the pole with a "THUD!" and snow went ontop of the unconscious Kilroy. Maybe the cold was enough to bring him back to the world of the living. Seeing the state of the van and the driver trying to run the girl started off in a different direction. In case someone tried following her she used the wind to pick herself up thanks to two concentrated wind tunnels.
The Eletrokinetic passed out due to the pain from the stone that may have take away his foot. Now it was up to the duo, or trio, to decided what to do...stop some people, investigate van, a little of both. They at least had one person to interrogate maybe.
Kilroy springs up, swear to The Economy, just like the cartoon. "Who What Where When Why How?" He is shivering and in pain. Not just limping to the nearby drug store in pain. That's just peanuts compared to pain. No, it's really REALLY big. "Ow." This is, widely regarded as one of the greater understatemetns of the 21rst century. Of course, the people who regard this as such are largely paid by Kilroy to under regard it. He tries to look around and get some bearing of where he is, and isn't getting much, but the thing he cares about most is helpingthe unconcious girl. Something in Kilroy more than just regular human subconciously creates coins and magically lifts his self up to move toward the van 'walking' weekend at bernie's style. It stops and 'picks up' Bobby, kind of 'helping him'
Roberto steps back and releases the van, letting it drop back to the pavement like a bodyslammed wrestling opponent. "If you don't get out of there this instant, I will beat this van so hard the government will have to bail out GM again!" he threatens in his typical over-the-top fashion as he paces deliberately to the driver's side door. Of course, when he yanks the door open, he discovers that the driver isn't ducking for cover: he has already run in the opposite direction.
"Merda," he mutters. He's fast enough to catch the runner, but not the wind-mover, and there are at least two hurt people who need attention. Quickly, he runs to the back of the van and yanks it open to check on the kidnapping victim.
"Aaah! Zombie!" Bobby flails a little. "I know I'm hot and tasty but don't try to eat me," he yelps as Kilroy sort of helps him up all coprse-style. He's joking though, accepting the hand up. Since Roberto seems to have the van covered, Bobby fires off an icy beam trying to stop the fleeing driver in his tracks by trapping his legs in ice.
Once Roberto stops the van, Kilroy begins to limp walk after the two that got away. He's still barely concious, in shock, and not terribly intelligent, but the fact of the matter is, all his magic is entirely external to him and while not BRIGHT, is much brighter than he is right now, as it walks ...well really 'floats' almost as fast as running but 'walks' in a dream like weird quality of freakiness after the two that ran away but not TOO close...no more lightning bolts. He motions for Bobby and Berto to follow.
The girl in the back was out cold. The van looked spotless except for one thing. A gray crate was there with a few manilla folder. Whoever looked at them would see the girl's file, Trish Chase. The file looked a little makeshift. Not neat enough to be a government job, but the info matched. Whoever did this was a pro, there was everything from a medical file with doctor's notes, and even pictures as if someone was trailing her for days. Everyone else that had a folder, had the same information. There were about five others. Other than that the Van was clean, except for any structual damage Roberto caused.
The two getting away kept moving faster in their own directions. The runner tried to outrun Roberto. They moved for a while. Seriously this man could ahve been a marathon runner, but eventually endurance makes fool of us all. Heavy breathe turned to wheezing, then to coughing, and he started to slow at this. Since Berto was using a different source of energy there was a slow down effect, but it didn't happen as soon. Eventually the driver could have been stopped.
The girl in the back was out cold. The van looked spotless except for one thing. A gray crate was there with a few manilla folder. Whoever looked at them would see the girl's file, Trish Chase. The file looked a little makeshift. Not neat enough to be a government job, but the info matched. Whoever did this was a pro, there was everything from a medical file with doctor's notes, and even pictures as if someone was trailing her for days. Everyone else that had a folder, had the same information. There were about five others. Other than that the Van was clean, except for any structual damage Roberto caused.
The driver was running. 'Was' being the keyword as he suddenly jerked forward and had stopped moving completely. Pain and cold wrenched his body and he tried to pull his legs free. Nothing worked. He kept trying despite the posibility. Now the group had two people to interrogate.
Roberto isn't concerned with the crate and files just yet. The records will keep -- this girl is unconscious, and he needs to figure out where between 'critical condition' and 'taking a nap' that unconsciousness falls. He knows only a little bit of first aid, the stuff everyone on the team was taught, but it should suffice: he checks her pulse and breathing and searches for injuries, especially to her head.
As he does so, he's going to call to Bobby, "Iceman! Figure out what happened to the zappy one, okay? Looked like he was hit by a telekinetic or something pretty hard."
Unless he discovers something that requires a more serious intervention, he's going to lean over Trish and gently move her shoulder. "Hey. Hey. Are you alright? Someone was trying to kidnap you."
"Hey! You should calm down over there. Struggling's only gonna get ya hurt," Iceman warns that guy that was running. He rubs the back of his head where he hit the pole as he turns to head towards the van and the others. Sure he's organic ice but that still hurt and he'll have a headache for the nice. "I need a drink," he mutters, meaning water more than a beer. Not that he'd turn down a good one. "Huh?" he blinks, looking around until he spots the zappy one. "Yeah, got it," he says, heading towards the pinned man and crouching down to examine him.
Kilroy pops back about five minutes later moving really fast. Kilroy might be reluctant to use the powers of the Economy to move fast, but the Economy has no issues. Kilroy groans and slowly slightly unshocks. He feels the invisible coins around him vanish and groans something about a girl, and knowing where they went and,"Medic!"
The girl was out cold. Nothing bad. However, a small puncture wound in her neck would suggest this was not a naturally made state of unconsciousness. Good thing because it meant there was no corresponding injury. Bad thing because...what kind of kidnapper would use a sedative like that?
The guy in the ice was still trying to escape. Defeat wasn't an optin in his book. The Zappy guy was out cold and it looked like there was a good chance he may be loosing that foot that was crushed by the giant rock Kilroy was once holding.
"She's been drugged," Roberto calls out, his voice grave. He stoops to lift her gently below the knees and shoulders. He flares once again into Sunspot, making carrying her a trivial task, and snags the crate of files with the hand that is hooked under her legs. He jogs lightly over to his own rental car, whose bucket seats will probably make for a more comfortable revival than the metal flooring of a panel van, and deposits the girl in the passenger seat and the files in the trunk. While he's in the trunk, he briefly considers changing the rest of the way into his costume, but it's too much of a delay. He rushes back to see if he can help with either of the prisoners, or the ... zombie? ... who got electrocuted.
Kilroy makes the totally not invisible rock go away since it is doing severe damage to the leg of the really stupid bastard who SHOT HIM WITH A LIGHTNING BOLT! He wants to do more but stops. Barely. "MGH" he mutters under his breath. He's sure of it. He's seen it and fought against it. These bastards.
Roberto would likely recognized a rather charred, under dressed and confused Kilroy Capital Conneticut who was 'volunteered' as a donor in his lab earlier by 57.
Once he's sure there's no sign of heads being cracked open or the leg having been removed, Bobby checks the rock quickly. "Where the hell did this thing even come from..." he trails off, having not seen when or where the stone appeared. He's about to put some ice into lifting it when it just suddenly vanishes. "What the - oh crap," he jumps when he sees that foot. "We're gonna need to get this guy to a hospital or something, quick," he says, looking up at Roberto and Kilroy.
The driver by now was shivering despite trying to get away, was now dealing with the effects of being partially frozen. The girl was fine, but out cold. Yes, the man needed a hospital as the driver needed some help too. By now a few people from inside the mall were watching the commotion outside, metal being bent and set down when you caught a truck was bound to make some noise. Everything looked secure, now it was up for the trio to figure out what to do now that there were two injured people, and a crowd. Some peopel did have cell phones adn began making phone calls.
"Kilroy?" Roberto says in disbelief, finally getting a good look at the man's face. "What do you have to do with--? You know what, never mind." He reaches into his pockets and retrieves his own cell phone. "We need to get you to a hospital. Suddenly, I wish I had gone for legroom rather than horsepower." He dials up a specific app -- an autopilot call for the blackbird. It will bring the VTOL craft to hover over their location and open the loading ramp. From there, it should be simple to get everyone aboard and to medical attention as fast as possible.
Well, as fast as possible while avoiding any place affiliated with Horizon.
Kilroy says, ""You wouldn't believe me if I told you...mainly because I'm stupid with shock at the moment..." as the craft lands, first, Kilroy is impressed as hell and second, attempts to load folks about helps with an invisible rock hovering under them as a makeshift ....body...mover....thing. "And I have more information on where they went." He whispers...OUT of earshot of the capture morons."
The one with a leg was dropped off at the hospital, there were plenty to choose from, and quickly seen to. Then when the landing dock closed they were on their way across the country to friendlier skies. There was a lot to discuss and figure out. At least everyone was safe.