2014-03-28 An Old Enemy Emerges
201-03-28
Players: Phantasm, Wolverine, Squirrel-Girl, Jean, Nightcrawler, X-23, Chamber
GMed by Lore
Title: An Old Enemy Emerges

Recorded: March 28, 2014
Characters: Phantasm, Wolverine, Squirrel-Girl, Jean, Nightcrawler, X-23, Chamber
Location: Harlem
Summary: A Break-In at CryGen Industries

It is a pleasantly warm evening in New York City. The days are getting longer, so people are staying out a bit later. The employees of CryGen Industries are filtering out of the building, glad to go home after a long day's work. Some of them wear lab coats, others suits and ties, and others simpler clothes indicating they wear a jumpsuit of some kind when working.

Once the building is quiet and the parking lot mostly empty save for a few late workaholics in the lower levels, the lights are turned off, leaving it locked tight for the weekend.

But not everything is locked as tight as they believe it to be. Someone has been here posing as an employee, turning a screw here, moving a filing cabinet to block a camera there, getting ready for the weekend. But this individual wasn't looking forward to getting out of work and going golfing, he was looking forward to getting /in/ to the building.

And get in he did.

When he was finished with his work, he ran into one of the late workers. The worker managed to hit the alarm before he was ruthlessly grabbed and threatened with an AK-47.

What a lovely evening indeed. It was so lovely that Mike had been in Morningside Heights a little earlier for a little guest visit to a certain music school. It was sheer luck he just happened upon this area at the time he did in order to hear the siren. Being cautious, he shifted over to a Phantasm form and is currently taking up the appearance of a Raven. Unless the guy with the AK has an incredible sense of smell or hearing, he somehow doubts that guy's going to know the difference.

Chuck had picked up an another new Mutant and like always, he sent some of his team to go find them, and bring them to a place where they'd be understood, where they wouldn't be hunted down like dogs anymore. And while he usually stayed out of these affairs lately, he was happy to drive and clear his head. Dreams of tommy guns and concrete blocks around his feet filled his head, and his lungs still felt like they were burning underwater. He was so focused and wrapped up in his own head that he hadn't heard the commotion at first, but twelve blocks away, that ringing alarm was practically screeching in his ear, and he looked at Kurt and Laura in the back seat.

"We got trouble, guys an' gals, sounds like someone's tiptoin' where they shouldn't be. Whaddaya say we set 'em straight?"

He was already turning around the Bentley, the sharp U turn not saving it from knocking a few trash cans over and denting the front bumper a bit, but that'd come out with some elbow grease. His teeth were already grit, and his hands in their driving gloves were clenching the steering wheel harder and harder…

Doreen is a new mutant in the city, and heard the alarm from where she was hanging out. She wanted to be a superhero ever since she was a toddler and ran around with a pillow case for a cape, and now is her chance! She bounces down the sidewalk and looks up at the enormous building, nearly losing the cute little beret she was wearing which slides into the hood of her trenchcoat. A pair of tiny paws pushes the hat back atop her head, then a brown squirrel climbs out of the hood and onto her shoulder, looking up at the building as well. "Wow, Monkey Joe! Look at that! It's huge! C'mon, let's go fight some crime!"

The energetic young girl and her furry friend creep up the steps, peering inside. She then takes off her coat, revealing her bushy tail, and the two are off to find their way into the building. Finding the mail slot, Doreen holds it open so MOnkey Joe can climb inside and unlatch the door for her. Who needs stealth and lockpicks when you can just walk in the front door?

In the time it took Logan to bring the car to a halt, Laura already opened the window on her side and hopped out, rolling behind a parked car to break her momentum and get out of direct line of sight. Logan briefly catches a glimpse of her as she claw-climbs her way up the side of the building, heading for an alternate entrance to catch the raiders from behind. Or above.

Sitting in the back of the car, Kurt occasionally shoots a look at Logan in the mirror. Since he's in the back anyway, he's just dressed in his usual attire plus a coat and hat. No need to put on the image inducer. At least, not yet. He has a suspicion or two about the mutant in the city, although the events unfolding so quickly throw his suspicions off. Is it who he thinks it is? He'll have to find out. "Let me—wait!" With a sigh, he mumbles to himself about the impatience of the young — not that he's old himself! — and scans the building. Once something catches his eye, or more accurately someone and another, smaller someone, he disappears out of the car, leaving only a sulfurous cloud and his coat and hat behind.

Jean was used to this kind of assignment, picking up new mutant students. People seemed to trust her for some reason. Anyway, she was unaware of what was going on until she picked up the agitation from Logan before he turned to talk to the passengers in back. She never got a chance to get a word in edgewise before she was slammed against the door panel of the elegant car as it spun around. "Logan, calm down…" she said as she looked over at him worriedly. The car slams to a halt and both Laura and Kurt are gone, leaving her to unbuckle her seatbelt and open the door, looking around to ascertain the situation. "We're going to need a plan, Logan."

Hell of a thing to walk in on, right?

It may be warm, but there's a man there who's still dressed for winter. Brown-haired kid, doesn't look all that remarkable. Except that his torso, from just under the nose to his waist, is wrapped tightly in cloth strips. They're black. And he's wearing a longcoat and long pants. That's going to be hot as hell in summer, ain't it?

Anyway. Gunshots.

This is kinda Jono's luck anyway. Walking down the street and suddenly gunshots. He just has a problem with being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or right place at the right time, depending on the outcome.

Who the bloody hell is shooting? Who are they shooting at? And why? Probably not a good thing. So he heads in that direction. Pay no attention to the man dressed for cold weather just walking down the road there. Yup, nothing to see here.

Outside, a large truck pulls up and many people holding automatic weapons file out of it and through a side door. One of them starts firing a few shots at X-23 to try and get her off the side of the building. Others gather to handle the arrival of several heroes. Those people were jam packed into that truck for as many as there are. There seems to be plenty of men in green uniforms for everyone.

"Get the freaks, we'll handle the rest."

Inside, the gunman and a few of his fellows are joined by more soldiers and lead the man in the labcoat to the door of a sealed room. "Open it." The gunman demands. "But I don't have clearance!"

THUNK! The two foot long raven smacks into the front of the truck, just another statistic of the bird vs motor vehicle carnage. Looks wedged in the grill a lot. Oh my. What a sad fate.

The little man growled in annoyance and just about tore that cowboy hat off his head, flinging it against the dashboard as he turned to Jean.

"The plan, Red, is to make sure that Laur-"

BRATATATATATATATAT!

Bullet ripped into the side of that Bentley and though the metal doors and car itself were reinforced some to protect against small arms fire, those heavy caliber weapons were pushing it. Logan, in pure instinct, threw himself -up- so that his back were covering the driver's window, so that the bullets would riddle into his back and ricochet off his adamantium ribs and spine, further tearing the inside of his body. He did this instinctively to protect Jean across from him, teeth gritting so hard that the enamel cracked, blood from his internal injuries already trickling out of his mouth. He growled out what could have been anything. Orders, a warning, a fifth grade poem. What came out was a growl followed by a gurgle, but his mind, his mind threw out a powerful command. Just one word, from the primal part of his being, the side that could still think at all

-RUN!-

Doreen throws herself behind the secretary's desk when she hears gunfire, Monkey Joe diving with her. She peeks around the corner and realizes that they aren't shooting at her, and scurries out of hiding with the squirrel on her shoulder, ducking into the elevator and pressing buttons. She will just go floor to floor until she finds something! Meanwhile, she emits a chitter (which Logan would probably hear) with a repeating pattern. Is she summoning her army?

Meanwhile, about two stories above street level, Laura briefly examines a window before slicing through the brackets holding it shut on one side, then carefully leverages it into the room to keep it from making noise as it falls and shatters before following it into the building.

The sound of gunfire and scent of familiar blood register, and are analyzed as most likely Logan having gotten in the way of the bullets — and since they didn't sound like hi-ex rounds, he should be fine.

Meanwhile, Kurt has to move quickly in order to catch Doreen. He hears the gunfire and winces, but Logan and Jean are more than capable of fending off bullets. He isn't quite so gifted with his powers, but he can move quickly from one point to another — which is exactly what he does, teleporting into the elevator just as the doors shut. "Please don't scream, fraulein! I'm here to help!" She might recognize his voice. In fact, that's what he's counting on. But even if she doesn't and screams, they're at least in an elevator and not in the open, where it might draw too much unwelcome attention. He puts on his friendliest face.

Jean let out a yelp of surprise as the bullets started riddling the car, dropping down in a squat behind the mildly-armored door and glass. As bits of glass fell around her, she pressed her fingers to the side of her head, "Laura's going to try and fla….Logan!" She stares for a second, frozen as the bullets rip into Logan. With a relexive wave of her hand, a telekinetic for slams into the gunmen, hopefully knocking off their aim for a moment to give Logan a bit of relief to regroup while she starts to run. It didn't help that there was a strong presence nearby masking things so her telepathy was like trying to listen through static. Otherwise she would just put them all to sleep. She reached out for the door she was sprinting towards, narrowing her eyes as she concentrated, then suddenly yanking her hands outwards to try and rip it out of the way.

Uh-oh. A truck driving up is probably not a good thing in this situation. Because it sure doesn't bloody look like a paddywagon. Sure enough, gunmen get out, and Jono's RIGHT THERE and he can't exactly get out of the way before they see him. And he presents a wonderful target, so close to the site of the trouble. There's about enough time for his eyes to widen in shock before—

BRATATATATATATATAT!

Unlike Logan, Jono doesn't have adamantium bones to bounce things around inside. But he also doesn't have any protection from gunshots. They rip through him easily, he stumbles back… and collapses backwards on the ground.

Thud.
He's not moving.
For a moment, anyway.
Through the holes in his wrappings, an orange-red light shines. At night this is so much more visible, since there's not so much ambient light. And then?

HE SITS UP.
< Right. Was gonna try to be nice t'you blokes. But that was just bloody rude. > A hand reaches up to pull the pierced wrappings around his neck, and red and orange fire begins to escape. Okay. Yeah. That guy's not normal.

Suddenly he's 'spitting' that fire at the ones who shot him. Except it doesn't burn. It actually feels more like a solid punch.

The baddies are firing at the X-Men and approaching the vehicle. One of them ducks when Mike swoops in and faceplants into the grill, then walks over. "What the hell?" He asks, trying to pull the bird out by a leg. "Stupid bird." He mutters as he pulls on it. "Damn thing better not have messed up the engine."

Meanwhile, a group of the poor guys in green nearly have a crap attack as Jonothon sits up after being turned into swiss cheese. And then there's /fire coming out of a guy's face/. They drop their weapons and try to back away, but go flying as the concussive burst hits them and slams them into concrete and steel. Those guys are going to be out for quite a while.

Four soldiers go to the building's entrance and up to the car and point their weapons at Jean and Logan. "Come out with your hands up. Don't try anything or you're dead!"

As the guy tugs on the bird's leg finding a lot of resistance, an odd thing occurs. The claw quickly twitches, grabbing onto the wrist tightly and tugging the baddie hard towards the truck hood. How hard? That is a freakishly strong bird.

The spray died down, and Logan collapsed in a bloody mess across the driver and passenger seats, his seatbelt entirely shot off by the spray of bullets, his heavy jacket and "winter cowboy" gear pretty much ruined. He also fell on the stickshift, and after a moment that ruined Bently drifted backwards, only stopping when the back bumper hits a meter.

Two seconds later, the man's eyes shot open, and snarling, he launched himself backwards out of that car. He hit that door just strong and just fast enough for it to rip right off its hinges, helped by the bullets greatly weakening its structural integrity. Depending on how close the gunmen were, they would have to dodge a flying heavy car door, and a three hundred pound Canadian man launching his back into them. But hit or miss, he'd quickly roll to his feet and spin around, both arms flailing out to any standing targets behind, or next to him. This would be all the worse for them as, moments before, an all-too familiar sound is heard.

SNIKT

Doreen isn't startled by Kurt's appearance so much as she is his arrival. She yeeps and falls back onto her rear, holding her big busy tail. "Oh, it's you! You look different. Much better this way! Did you enjoy the coca? Erm, nevermind, this isn't the time for that!" She hops to her feet and strikes a triumphant pose.

"Never fear, citizens of New York, Squirrel Girl is here to save the day!"

Yes, she just did that.

When the elevator reaches a floor, she holds the door open and lets Monkey Joe out to look around. When he returns, he comes back with a second squirrel. OK, that's a little weird. She lets the door close and they go down again. "I wonder how far down this place goes! Maybe it goes down like a mile and there's a whole underground civilization of forgotten people that nobody knows about and they're doing things like thawing out woolly mammoths and dinosaurs in some evil plot to take over the world and turn it into a Jurassic Park!" She taps her chin. Are mammoths Jurassic or Triassic?" She then chitters to the squirrels who answer her and she pats her hands together. "Excellent…"

Kurt is immediately touched by the girl's words. But he gathers himself, now isn't the time for sentimentality to too great an extent. He bows to Doreenno, Squirrel Girland then leaps onto the wall into an upper corner, at least a little hidden. "I…believe mammoths were after those periods, weren't they?" Wait, why are they talking about dinosaurs all of a sudden? He's lost in the flurry of conversation, but he waves his tail at Squirrel Girl. "You may want to duck to the side, so they don't see you right in the middle of the elevator. These men are armed and will try to shoot you…we should develop a plan."

The doors go flying to either side as Jean runs into the building, ducking behind whatever she can find as cover, likely the front desk. She doesn't get up, but reaches out to Logan, <What are we going to do now? I'm pinned down.>

It's funny how things work out. Jean runs into the building and Jono sees her. Seeing as how his dance partners are sitting this one out, Jono's got time. So as Jean runs into the building Jono follows. Into the door steps the man with fire wreathing his face, emanating from under the wrappings around his torso. The holes in the wrappings at his chest show flickering red-orange behind them.

He's also the source of the massive psychic contact.

Are any of the gunmen after Jean? If so, < Oi, you tossers! You wanna tangle with somebody? Right here! > And then proceed to introduce any who shoot at him to a psychokinetic fireball at close range.

But then again, he can't get them all…

There is quite a lot of collateral damage going on in the lobby of CryGen. Several of the gunmen after Jean are thrown back, sliding across the room on fire. The few that weren't caught in the fireball close in to try and knock Jonothon down with the butt of his weapon while the others try to grab Jean by the arms.

Logan takes out several greenies and others start running away. Screw this job, it doesn't pay nearly enough to deal with this kind of crap! The gunmen in the distance continue to fire, feeling safer not being too close to the man with those claws.

The man grabbed by the bird nearly pees himself, emitting a shrill yell just before his head meets the edge of the hood of the truck. He drops to the ground with a rather nasty gash on his head and the other men back away, trying to shoot the bird, their rounds ricocheting off the truck. "Dammit stop shooting!"

The raven, which was so hard to get off the grill earlier, starts to slide off. Upon resting his talons upon the ground, he straightens up to his full stature of 2, no. 3- 4? Oh for Chrissakes is it growing? The bird jerks back with some of the bullets but looks over towards the shooters, giving an unsettling, and highly improbable smile, jagged teeth showing. He starts moving towards them. Features growing darker as a hood starts to form, beak shrinking back into the shadow as the wings start to split into claws. The beady eyes start glowing, complimenting the glow of the teeth. "Who's next?"

Jean sent Logan a telepathic message, but right now the haze of battle and the 'Survivor State' he went into when highly damaged all meant that Logan wasn't going to contribute much in the way of conversation, not right now at least. Those great senses of his were all tunneled in on the very last guy shooting him, blasting into his regenerating body with an AK. It was the only weapon he still heard, he was the only one he smelled right now. Predictably, Logan dealt with this problem by running -toward- the final mook standing his ground, and leaping off the ground. If life had worked out differently, the man called Wolverine could have been one of the greatest NBA players, but right now he used that airtime to launch himself toward the green-clad gunman like an adamantium laced missile, his claws being the destructive warhead that aimed for the poor bastard's torso.

"HRAAAAAGH!"

Doreen looks at the door, then at Kurt as he climbs up the wall. She kicks off her shoes, revealing that her feet have claws just like her fingers, and scales the wall as well. "Why are we climbing the walls?" She asks, her bushy tail twitching nervously. "Is the floor lava now? That's not real, you know!"

"No, no," Kurt waves his hands and points to the door. "I just don't want these men gunning for you if the doors open and they see you." Doreen climbing the walls doesn't seem to surprise him, least of all bother him of course, since he's obviously doing the same thing. "How shall we deal with the men here? Presumably there are armed troops where we're going. I can teleport around and disarm them, but I can only take out so many."

Jean is grabbed by the guards, one on each arm as she thrashes around and she's dragged from behind the desk. Her hair starts to rise a little bit around her and her eyes glow orange before they suddenly find themselves shoved back -hard- against the walls in the room, Jono too if he isn't careful. "That's enough! If you want to play, then fine, you should know the price of messing with me." Her voice is a little deeper right now, carrying over the sounds of the struggle as she stands there in the middle of the room with a grimace on her face.

WHAP! Jonothon is indeed hit with the butt of the weapon. Which is probably a good thing since he goes down just as Jean throws people everywhere. But to note the earlier 'zombie' comparison, it… doesn't seem to hurt much. He blinks as he notes the flying people. That's probably distracted the guy who hit him too.

So! Presuming it has? Jono jumps up, tries to take the gun away and smack HIM across the face with the butt of the weapon.

Things have gone rather sideways for the guys in green. The men near the truck decide that messing with a four foot tall whatever Mike turned into isn't worth it and start to flee. Several of them put their fingertips to one of their ears, a sign that they've received some kind of radio transmission. Jono takes down the guy that hits him as Jean blows people everywhere. Nightcrawler and Squirrel Girl are hanging out in the Elevator which finally reaches the lowest level of the laboratory. There are armed men down there. "Come on, we got the signal to get the heck out of here. There's mutants up above making a mess." The men had just blown the door off the lab and forced the scientist inside. With no further use for him, they just throw him inside one of the test rooms and closes the door as they claim what they came for.

Wolverine is just making an unholy mess out of everything, the green uniforms soaked in red. The soldiers are withdrawing as quickly as possible, though there are plenty of bodies all over the place to examine. Upon closer examination, if anyone would be familiar with it, they would find they wear a circular patch with the symbol for HYDRA upon it.

By the time the group starts running off, the creature Mike is now has gotten closer to their height. To encourage their run away from the building, Phantasm lets out a snarl which sounds like a cross between a wolf and a lion. He starts to give chase, to encourage them to move a bit quicker.

Logan stood there, fists practically embedded in the belly of the green clad gunman, claws and hands staying steady as a rock as every second, the dying man sunk down toward his knees. Those razor-sharp claws were slowly slicing through ribs and shredding organs and lungs, blood pooling out and dripping along the ground, and Logan was locked that way, wild blue eyes staring into his enemy's eyes. Another life he'd taken, another light extinguished without a moment's hesitation. Suddenly, Logan felt a little sick, and his claws quickly slipped between his knuckles back into his body, the terrorist's blood and marrow intermingling with his own before it was quickly repelled and directed to his stomach. He'd have to spit it up later, but right now he walked away, shaking his head and finally studying his surroundings. He looked over to see a creature chasing the green men away, nodding at that snarl.

"Good. Serves 'em right."

Something about these guys looked familiar, and looking down, he noticed the symbol on the dead man's belt buckle, trying to ignore the man's eyes, still darting around. His mind went into overdrive and he turned, racing toward the building as fast as he could.

-Jean. Jean! Ya ok, red, ya handle 'em yet?"

Doreen frowns, still clinging to the inside of the elevator. She chitters and another squirrel comes from somewhere. Outside, the others might suddenly notice that there are squirrels. Squirrels everywhere. Hundreds of them, each one holding an acorn. Doreen chirrups and they start running toward the building like a wave of fuzzy brown. Doreen climbs up to open the panel on the ceiling of the elevator, and suddenly the fuzzy brown wave begins pouring into the elevator. She cackles and hops down to the ground. "I believe this is our floor, sir!" Annd then she pushes the 'Door Open' button and the tidal wave floods through the doors.

Kurt's brows raise as the squirrel sea floods the elevator and pours out to cover the floor before them. The fuzzy elf grins and crawls along the ceiling, careful not to endanger any of Doreen's friends, and once he has a clear view, he teleports out, intent on disarming and KOing as many of any troops that may be left. If there are any.

The light in Jean's eyes fade as she stands there and takes a deep, calming breath, glancing around the wrecked room. Furniture, decorations, as well as the unconscious gunmen had been strewn around the place and it was a mess. "A uniform of some kind, but I don't recognize it," she mutters as she looks over at a soldier before crossing over to Jono and reaching to help him up, "You're the one who's been buzzing inside my head. Thank you for coming to help me. What's your name?"

Jono's actually already up on his feet— he got up when the gunman was distracted from Jean's flinging of people; fact he got up and hit the guy in the face with his own gun. But he does note her question. And he seems to hesitate in answering it. Surface thoughts?

He's scared to answer.

He doesn't talk like everyone else does (which is probably expected given that fire comes from where his mouth ought to be) and he doesn't want her to get scared of him. Eventually though, he does answer. < Jonothon. > He lets a moment pass. Then, < You all right? >

Things seem to be calming down now that the heroes have gotten the upper hand. Wolverine kind of made a mess everywhere. Jonothon and Jean are alone in the lobby now, when Wolverine comes running in. Mike has just scared the unholy crud out of the ones hanging near the truck, piling into it in an attempt to get away from the creature. The truck's engine roars to life as men pile into it. Kurt is able to take out the remaining guys by knocking them out as the squirrels wash over the soldiers and take them down by forcing them into walls. The scientist bangs on the wall of the room he's stuck inside, and finally the guys that stole the box of items have escaped out another exit.

Adjusting the speed so that everyone can get into the truck before he can reach them, Phantasm claws the side of one of the truck doors as they close, causing for a terrible scraping of paint off of the side. How nice, they get a souvenir of the experience.

Logan ripped off those bullet-riddled civilian clothes as he stepped into the lobby of that building, his black and yellow uniform underneath and also damaged, but to a lesser extent. Reaching behind him, he pulled on that yellow and black winged mask before putting on his black leather gloves to complete the ensemble. He gave a grunt of greeting to the new guy, but he seemed to largely dismiss him after seeing that the man's body language suggested he wasn't a threat. His attention was entirely on Jean, even as he rolled his neck to let the adamantium-laced bones crackle.

"Jean, you got Kurt? Or Laura? These guys…I swear I've seen these guys before. They're hittin' the ol' Deja Vu sense mighty bad."

(Costume reference: http://www.tencentticker.com/projectrooftop/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Z2127158581388215_1.jpg )

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