12240/The Cure: Burning Man

The Cure: Burning Man
Date of Scene:	26 September 2020
Location:	Apartment 1A, Claridge's
Synopsis:	Metaforce sets fire to anti mutant HQ, and comes up against resistance in the form of numerous heroes!
Cast of Characters:	Pixie, Jane Foster, Sandra Billings, Iron Man, Prismatic, Red, Siphon, Nightingale, Punisher
Tinyplot:	Mutant Cure

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Pixie has posed:
It's early evening, just after rush hour and a particularly worn down and overlooked part of the city seems to be fairly quiet...But out of nowhere, four costumed figures, dressed in red and black spandex suddenly appear out of nowhere, hovering in bubbles over a particularly small apartment complex.

"And you're sure this is the place?" the tall red-haired man narrows his eyes, stepping forward, massive dragon like wings curling around his broad shoulders as he surveys the scene. The three others land next to him in the alley behind the apartment, the woman with green hair pale skin nodding as she steps towards him. Her eyes glow intensely green, staring blankly at some far away point and nods. "Yes. The leaders of the anti-mutant faction are within. Third floor. Various members are situated in this apartment as well."

A glowing green crow caws softly as it sits in a tree overlooking the third floor apartment.

"Excellent." The red haired man, better known as Dragonlord, lifts his hands and summons massive flames from each hand. Without another word he unleashes a torrent of flames upon the apartment complex.

The clump of trees in front of the wooden building catch on fire quickly enough, easily spreading to the apartment building soon after. Even as the fire starts to spread, he spreads his wings and hovers over the building, unleashing more massive balls of flame upon the small building.

"Take point, no one gets in or out. These vile enemies of meta humans will be punished!"

Jane Foster has posed:
Another long workday at the hospital was done and the scheduling gods were smiling on one Jane Foster and one Sandra Billings. The pals ended up getting off shift at the same time, which meant there was no excuse to not get cleaned up and enjoy the chance to a night out at a respectable hour. Like real people! They'd just got off the bus a few minutes before and are making their way down the sidewalk towards a nearby restaurant and chatting as they go.

"So then, here I am walking in circles for nearby an hour looking for my patient, only to finally find they'd moved him to a different floor and someone forgot to actually write down what room he was transferred to and then clocked out. Ugh, I was livid. Absolutely livid. They didn't even have the decency to pull this on me until I'd gotten a second round of coffee i--"

She trails off as she looks down the street. "San', you smell that? Wait, is that smoke?" Sure enough, she can see the starts of the fire from about half a block down as the black starts to billow. "Come on, something's going down." And likely duty calls.

Sandra Billings has posed:
"Oh, girl, tell me about it." Sandy says as she lets out a loud sigh in her throat. "Some of these new girls they got working there can't tell their first from their third floor. It's like they think the hallway is just one long .."

Trailing off, the plumper of the two and more boisterous pauses at the smell of smoke, furrowing her brows. She pauses for a moment, tilting her head. "I don't hear sirens, this must have just started. Guess it won't hurt to take a look." She says as she digs out her phone from her purse, following after her.

Iron Man has posed:
"Dammit, Dum-E! When I zig, you're supposed to zag to compensate! That's how compensation works!"

Rolling awkwardly through the skies of New York, the Armored Avenger is a much less awe-inspiring sight than usual. He seems to be having trouble with something as simple as flying in a straight line, the armor's various body panels moving independently and randomly increasing drag to different areas of the armor. Really screws up the aerodynamics, as anyone would be able to tell you.

But it's hard to teach an old Dum-E anything...

"Mwoop?"

The new onboard AI for the Iron Man suit really stretches the 'intelligence' half of 'artificial intelligence'. But it'll have to do for now, until Tony is able to recreate J.A.R.V.I.S. or code up a replacement. Assuming that he lives long enough to do either, the way he's flying...

Streaking above the city's skyline, with the occasional sudden dip or burst of acceleration, Tony gets more and more irate by the second.

"Don't you 'mwoop' me, Dum-E! Just stop futzing with my settings, and do your job! I need a flight plan logged for Avengers Mansion, and I don't want to end up in ugh... Gotham."

Prismatic has posed:
    Where there is smoke, there is fire.

    She had missed busking, and since she was walking back from an engagement after owing a friend a favor from a moped accident, ALexis Carr was just wearing her boelro jacket with the yellow X on the side over some jeans and a light, but nice shirt, and she pauses.

    She stiffly sets herself up, and begins to run, reaching for her phone to call for help -- after all, what's a *music teacher* going to do?
    ... other than slip her escrima sticks out of her boots as she runs.

Red has posed:
After the debacle at Lady Liberty, Alice started to carry things. Including a chunk of SBS. Poly(styrene-butadiene-styrene). A rather versatile copolymer, sturdy but not too heavy. Just something to work with, molded into a pair of rather thick bracers. And because she didn't like either of the nicknames Scott had had for her, she had made sure the stuff was red. Just like her blouse. And as she's around with some of the Xavier students, she sighs a little as Alexis begins to run towards the fire. Great.

Wiping over their forehead with the thumb, she remolds some of the red polymer to some sort of Domino mask before she follows up. "Fire?! I hate fire..."

Siphon has posed:
    One of those students is Tabitha Barr, newest transplant and likely the gawkiest tourist to ever gawk. Then again, her entire life before two days ago could fit into one building around here. So it's taking more effort than she would like to keep her attention on the excursion to, among other things, get materials for the cosplay she wants to make. She's bundled up well beyond NYC autumn and has her black lace veil and gloves on so that her most notable features aren't going to cause the group any trouble
    Alice starting to run gets her attention away from the skyline, though and she automatically runs to keep up with her teacher. "Fire? What fire?" The smoke is seen. "Oh, that fire." She flexes her fingers lets out a deep breath.

Nightingale has posed:
     It was a rare treat for Shannon to spend much time with Alexis outside of class. Truth be told, she missed both her and her adopted big brother, Sam, quite a bit. They had their own lives to lead, but it still didn't always help the heartache. So when the opportunity arose for a trip to the city to hear Alexis play, the winged teen jumped at the chance. Surely it would be a nice, normal trip, right? Right!

     That is, if you count 'normal' as 'running towards burning buildings'. But for Xavier's students, this seemed to be normal, indeed.

     A few colorful metaphors in various languages escape her as she instantly takes to the sky, tucking a Bluetooth headset into her ear. Those who had traveled with her before would likely know she was slipping into a more 'professional' mode, and hopefully have similar options for communication with them, via their phones and headsets. "Nightingale here. Going to try to assess the situation. Anyone got a call out to emergency services yet?"

Pixie has posed:
Screaming can be heard coming from the apartment complex. And while it is not that large, only three floors high, there are still at least some 10-15 people trapped within, only a few of them being members of the anti-meta human group that Metaforce is after. There is only one fire escape route - the front door. And it's blocked with flames. There are a few open windows, although Dragonlord is careful to blast most of them with flames, keeping people helplessly trapped within..

The wail of a fire truck can be heard, along with an ambulance coming from a few blocks away.

"Fluttergast. Deal with that!" snaps Dragonlord. With a nod, the green haired woman's eyes glow again, and a hand gesture is all she needs to send a flock of psionic crows to attack both ambulance and fire truck. "That should keep them busy for a while." she smirks.

A quick glance around and it seems they have attracted the arrival of some civilians, and...A rocket man..Iron man? Doesn't look like his suit is functioning very well. "Corona, deal with that one." snaps Dragonlord. The tall, skinny man draped in a long red cape steps forward, rubbing his greying goatee. Lifting his arms he summons a large energy shield to surround him, lifting him skywards towards Iron Man. Flinging out his arm, he sends out several grapefruit sized energy orbs at Tony, each one exploding with terrible force should they contact him.

Meanwhile the last member, a petite young woman with olive skin and curly brown hair steps forward, eyeing the apparent civilians and smiles, body shimmering as it transforms to rock solid crystal form and she summons a pair of crystal swords, spinning them with expert ease as she stands in front of the entrance. "Turn away and you won't get hurt." she warns.

Jane Foster has posed:
It doesn't take long for Jane and Sandy to arrive on scene as they were only a few buildings down, and Jane is quickly looking over the building as it comes into view. Figures, another NYC building sneaking under the building code radar. No fire escapes. Great. It only takes seconds for her to note that this is not a normal fire but an attack, and she shoots a worried look aside to Sandy. "I can't go up against this, so I'll stand back and be ready to help when anyone comes out of there. I'm going to get the team on the line and let them know what's going on so they can be prepared."

She's not dumb, she's a squishy. So Jane isn't moving to go running at the building and instead keeps back and already pinpointing places to duck and cover. Her phone is out as she backs up a few steps and dials the ER.

Sandra Billings has posed:
There is a loud sigh from Sandy as she sees the attacking mutants swarming the building. "Geezus." She says, handing her phone to Jane, then slides off her purse. She presses her lips together for a grimace, then looks to her best friend. "Stay out of the way if you can. I.. am going to do something .. stupid ...like try and save some lives."

With that, she plants a foot on the ground as she focuses, then barrels forward, running straight towards the crystal woman at the entrance. Due to her natural powers, she becomes a tiny-Juggernaut as the earth anchors her. She ducks her head down, letting out a loud roar, then launches herself forward, looking to barrel right into the crystal woman at the entrance from the side.

The ground beneath her feet cracks beneath her as she looks to cut loose for the first time in years. She is going to hit this woman like a semi truck. One with the brakes cut and an open freeway before her. BOOM. Let's see who can crack first.

Iron Man has posed:
"Alright, alright, that's better. Think you're getting the hang of this, Dum-E! We'll make a... wh-WHOA!"

Another sudden dip, as Iron Man's unpredictable co-pilot tries once again to figure out how to operate the armor's self-guiding systems. But this particular reverse zig is actually fortuitous, as the unpredictable flight plan makes it difficult for the Fancy Cape Man to accurately target the barrel-rolling Iron Man.

When the explosions go off, a couple of them are close enough for their detonations to send shockwaves through the armor, enough that Tony can feel it inside. But the armor remains intact for now, and he avoids crashing into anything.

When the armor gets righted, Tony can get a visual on his attacker, and for a second, he smiles behind his metal faceplate.

"Oh sweet! Look Dum-E, it's DOCTOR STRANGE! Strange you old so and so, where've you been the last few... wait a sec."

"DUM-E! Divert power from the sound system to the shield array! This isn't Strange, it's probably an Evil Clone!"

"Mwoop!"

Prismatic has posed:
    "You should *all* be staying back out of the line of fire." Alexis states in her no-nonsense teacher voice as the dimunitive musican looks back at the assembled teens, "should anything happen to you, I wouldn't be able to live with myself /and/ Scott would kill me." the woman mutters as she pulls her hair back in a bun, and she narrows her eyes.

    Alexis could have been related to the last member, her own skin giving an uncomfortable shimmer as she brings up her escrima sticks.

    "... new plan. Go around the back of the building. If anyone's there, get them out of the way. Evacuation of the people inside comes first, don't engage in a fight if you don't have to." the British woman states as she narrows her eyes at the crystaline-sword bearing woman.

    She breathes out, and touches her own bluetooth headset. Multicall set up on the 'Student Line'.

    "Remember. The people inside might not be inclined to like you. If they don't want your help, get out of their way. Your primary mission is to stay alive." the teacher states quietly, as if orchestrating the strings section as she brings one stick up and faces against the other woman -- narrowly avoiding Sandra Billings' barreling into her!

    "Oh --" she blinks, looking to Sandy a moment, and then cracks a grin "-- didn't realize I was interrupting!"

Red has posed:
Alice follows tight after Alexis, nodding at the order to round the building. "You take care not to get reamed." she notes as she gestures to the side alley, searchign for the indicated back door so they could get up inside. And indeed, there it is, and she gestures to the fire door. "Nightinggale, Siphon up with you right when I open the door. I follow right away!"

The next moment she stops in front of the back door, first testing it if it was locked, then slipping some polymer through the gap to unlatch it by forming a ring around the latch. Yanking at the plastic, the latch is pushed in and the door jumps open for the other team members. "Gogogo!"

Siphon has posed:
    Running AT trouble isn't anything new to Tabitha. She did it all the time back home. Of course, that was either the younger orphans getting hurt or standing between a bully and their target (when it wasn't her in the first place). But when the other women with her start to do things like pull out weapons, put on masks, and talk about scouting out the area? That's a lot more than the pixie-waif can easily process. So she doesn't try. Questions come after the screaming stops.

    It takes her a beat for the orders from Alexis to click in her head, but she chases after Alice quickly enough that she's there as the rear fire door is pulled open. She reflexively rolls her eyes behind the veil as Alice calls her Siphon. "I don't even know if I LIKE that name yet..." is muttered. It's mostly something to take her mind off of the fire. Building on fire. Burning building. Maybe burning people. Her vision swims but she holds it together enough to find that nebulous 'on/off' switch in her head. She pulls off her lace gloves as her chalk pale skin begins to sofly glow with copper glitter.

    Then she's through the door and moving to the nearest flaming surface to reach out, touch it, and PULL. Fire is heat and light, both of which are food to Siphon's aura. Robbed of heat, fire cannot live and so any fire close to where she touches goes out. She'll keep a hand on the walls as she tries to listen for screams to head towards.

Nightingale has posed:
     "That's a negative, Alexis... Alice... Siphon. You three get people out, I'll make sure emergency services can get through! If they don't like mutants in that building, they sure aren't gonna wanna see a winged girl coming at them!" It was not often that Shannon bucked orders in the field, but she saw those psionic crows heading for the ambulance and fire truck. The sooner those two vehicles could get there, the easier their jobs would all be.

     Her wings begin to beat the air, sending the teen higher and higher, till she is nearly out of sight. Anybody who knew her, knew what this meant. Anybody who didn't, was about to find out.

     The evil metas might think she'd fled the field. That was just too bad for them. Or at least, for Fluttergast. As Shannon snaps her wings inwards, she dives out of the sky, picking up speed as she nears the ground. At the last possible second, her wings snap open, arresting her fall just enough to allow her to twist her body up and bring her feet to bear, aiming right for Fluttergast. "Nighty-night, you son of a..."

     The last is drowned out by the sound of the crows.

Pixie has posed:
It seems the emergency vehicles are already on their way, although their tires screech as a large flock of crow bars their vision. They swerve this way and that and one tire bursts on the fire truck, causing it to screech and crash, still several blocks away. Fortunately, due to Shannon's dive bomb attack, no further damage is done as the Ambulance at least manages to get through, sirens wailing as it screeches around the corner and arrives at the scene first.

Fluttergast is so focused on the psi-crows that she literally doesn't know what hit her, and she barely utters a surprised Yelp before she is knocked out, stumbling to the ground. The flock of crows vanish instantly, allowing the firemen to quickly repair their damaged tire. Hopefully they can get to the apartment in time..

Meanwhile, it seems that Sandra is indeed as tough as a semi truck crashing into a Boulder. Unfortunately Chrysalis's body is as tough as solid diamond, and coupled with her accelerated healing, she won't go down easily. Still, she's never met someone as powerful as Sandra before, who manages to barrel right through her and through the door to boot.

Crystal girl yelps, tumbling to the ground but picking herself up quickly. She's a bit bruised, or would be, if her crystal form hadn't protected her, but she's at least limping a little. She draws a breath and her form shimmers, regenerating whatever internal wounds she might have suffered. For now, she doesn't attack, focusing on recovery.

Corona, who is not a Strange double and would likely be offended, continues to hurl exploding energy orbs at Ironman, "Fool, can't even manage your own armour?" he spits, "What a waste."

Meanwhile, Dragonlord continues to maintain a steady flame over the building. He notices the entry of the 'Wrecking ball' of a woman, and narrows his eyes, sending a funnel of flames through the front door after her. "You can't save them all! If you I insist, you can die with them!"

Meanwhile it seems that Alexis, Alice and Tabitha have found a back door in. Fortunately, Tabitha manages to lessen some of the flames around them, and people are already stepping out of their apartment rooms, screaming for help. People on upper floors are attempting to climb out of any windows overlooked by Dragonlord. Although it's a high jump from the third floor, as these apartments are fairly high off the ground.l

Jane Foster has posed:
While the heroes go about doing their hero-ing, Jane is working the background. She's bolting for the ambulance once it manages to get away from the murder of crows. She's simultaneously talking on her phone while also sending out texts to her contacts, making sure medical teams in the immediate area are informed. Once there, she's be pocketing her phone and meeting the responders to make quick work of identifying herself and offering backup.

Sandra Billings has posed:
Climbing back up to her feet, Sandy doesn't look to let Crystal Girl have a chance to even so much as breathe. The moment she is back up on her feet, she is looking to slam a balled fist straight into the side of the woman's head, swinging with all her might. She can feel the heat of the flames all around her, even through her dense skin.

"GET OUT! If you can hear me, get out through the front door! It's open!"

If she has to tangle with this lady a bit, she will, but she is going to try and make quick work of it.

Iron Man has posed:
If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough...

Fortunately for Dum-E, he's trapped inside one of the safest places on Earth. Inside the Iron Man suit, that is. Not trapped inside Tony, who is not only an avid risk-taker, but also full of shrapnel and booze. Still, despite being inside the suit's heavy gold-titanium shell, Dum-E still can't help but let out a panicked scream as he is bombarded with exploding energy balls!

"Mwoooo-RROWWWWWWWW!"

Unfortunately, this all happens right inside Tony's earpiece, and nobody else has to hear Dum-E's 'dialogue.'

"Dammit! If you scream like that again, I'm donating you to a community college!" Iron Man brings his weapon systems online, which takes only a few fractions of a second without J.A.R.V.I.S., but those extra fractions are the bleeding edge that helps him stay ahead of his opponents. Without them, he's a flying tank.

But a flying tank is still pretty awesome.

His electronically-modulated voice is broadcast via the suit's external soundsystem, as he dodges Corona's attacks.

"Under Article One of the Stark Protocols, you have waived your rights to not have your head blown off by Repulsor Blasts."

Then, without any further warning, he begins unloading Rapid-Fire Repulsors at the target, the pulses coming so fast that it looks almost as if each of his hands is emitting a continuous destructive beam.

Angled away from any innocent civilians or infrastructure, obviously. Even Dum-E isn't that dumb.

Prismatic has posed:
    Alexis wasn't with the students. She had given an order, she had expected it to be followed, and figured dealing with anti-metas was safer -- moderately -- than contending with anti-anti-metas. All the more disappointing when the order wasn't followed -- instead she makes her way in after Sandra, tucking herself inside the door and, looping an escrima stick about the handle, she pulls it closed, holding it a moment to guard Sandra's back. Her skin turns red, starting with her fingertips, and she winces, bodily before she opens the door a crack and calls out.

    "OI! DON'T YOU MAKE ME CALL SAINT GEORGE ON YA!, and she kicks the door open.

    "Why don't you pick on someone your own size ya great big auroch!"

    And she bites her thumb at him, ready to take the heat, waiting to get him good and mad and come after her rather than the door.

    The crystaline skin under hers can take it, she was sure.

    ... she hoped.

Punisher has posed:
Then, there's the wildcard to this party.

Down the block, a man in a skull vest and trenchcoat has been watching the goings on with interest from within the Battle Van. Another group willing to do what it takes to put down a threat? Something of interest, at least. He's out of relative sight for the most part...

At least, until the stragglers from the whole chaotic mess start to filter out of the building.

"Not seein' them yet..." Punisher grouses as he monitors with a monocular. A few moments more, and... "Target sighted."

The Punisher suddenly revs the muffled engine and programs the auto-drive on his vehicle to get in front of the group of stragglers.

Meanwhile, a tranquilizer rifle is taken from the back as the Punisher gets in position to do what he came here to do; take his target.

Red has posed:
Alice nodded as Tabitha stormed in past her and went on to work her way in and hopefully up, using her arm to shield her face from some of the smoke as she attempted to get to the inhabited rooms and places so she could extract the people. "Keep on the fire duty! Good job!

Siphon has posed:
    Tabitha WAS moving from the back of the building towards the front, trying to get as much of the ground floor extinguished as she could. That plan gets derailed by the crashing in of the two tanks so she finds the stairs as quick as she can and starts running up. She keeps her hands pressed into the wall as well as she can while hopefully keeping out of the way of the inhabitants who SHOULD be heading down in order to escape.

    Knowing that she can't put the entire building out this way but still wanting to do more she kicks off her crappy shoes and stands in the nearest spot of burning floor. "Get out! Get moving!"

    The more fire she robs of its heat, the brighter the glow in her skin gets. The copper glitter thickens until her skin looks like it's made of brightly glowing liquid copper. Also the more the takes in, the more she WANTS to take in. A hunger is growing inside of her, so she PULLS harder at the flames to take in even more. And if she reaches a point where she can see Dragonlord actually breathing fire? Well won't that be fun?

Nightingale has posed:
     Hopefully, with the murder of crows dissipated into the nightmarish nothingness from whence they came, and Fluttergast out of commission, the fire truck and ambulance could get through and make everyone else's job a bit easier. Shannon tucks and rolls as she connects with the progenitor of crows, losing a few feathers as she skids along asphalt and gets to her feet. "Nightingale here. Path is cleared for emergency services, I'm heading in."

     See, she hadn't -exactly- ignored orders.

     She only has a second or two to get into the air as the energy blasts start raining down in her general vicinity, soaring around towards the back of the building. "Go get 'em, Iron Man!" It only takes her a second to spot the entrance that Alice and Tabitha used--and the fact that the flames were far less there. Pulling up the neckline of her sweater to cover her mouth and nose, she takes a deep breath and darts inside, following the path laid out by the other two, keeping a watch for any civilians who need a guiding hand out. Room by room, she calls out into each doorway, finding as many as she possibly can.

Pixie has posed:
With the crows out of the way, the fire truck finally arrives on the scene and, thanks to Jane's co-ordination they quickly get to work, taking care of the injured that manage to spill out through the blasted front door exit, and some more at the back. Thankfully a lot of the fire has been snuffed out with help from Tabitha, as the others help to rescue others trapped on upper floors.

The fire crew get busy fighting the rest of the fire and by now the cops have turned up, approaching the metas. Chrysalis snarls, staggering back a bit from Sandra's powerful blow, twisting to the side to avoid a full on blow and counters with a couple of vicious stabs at her stomach with her diamond hard blades.

But as the police arrive and metas are starting to pour into the building it's time to retreat. Corona snarls, shielding himself from most of Ironman's blasts, although a few blasts hit him and he yells as he falls down to the ground. Even Dragonlord is starting to tire.

"Fall back!" he calls to his team, and again, Corona surrounds all of his team mates' in energy shields, lifting them out of the way of trouble. "We've made our mark..Kets go.." an instant later they vanish from view, leaving destruction in their wake. Surely at least some of their enemies perished in that fire..

Sandra Billings has posed:
After falling through with her punch, Sandy glances down at her knuckles to find them busted open and bleeding. There is a look of surprise on her face as she stands stunned for a moment. That is when Chrysalis lunges forward with her diamond blade, sinking it into her gut. It's one of the few materials in the world that can harm her.

With a loud 'gurk' in her throat, she falls to her knees as she clutches at her stomach, feeling blood squirt between her fingers. As she glances up at the diamond woman, her eyes widen, waiting for the killing blow to come, but instead she vanishes away. With a loud sputtering cough, she croaks out as the thick smoke starts to surround her.

Iron Man has posed:
"Nailed 'im."

It's hard to tell when dealing with someone whose entire head is covered, but Tony looks very pleased with himself right now. Sure, putting down a bad guy isn't exactly a new development for him, but it's been a while since he's been able to take the suit into a fight.

And it's been even longer since one of his suits survived an entire skirmish...

"Alright Dummy, upload this data to the Avengers and SHIELD servers. We'll let the first responders do their job so that I can get back to the penthouse and see about a certain leggy brunette."

Giving a lazy half-salute to the firefighters and other heroes below, Iron Man turns and begins rocketing back toward Stark Tower.

"Shit. What was her name again, Charlotte or Gretel?"

"Mwoop?"

"You're the worst, Dummy..."

Jane Foster has posed:
Jane Foster is a doctor on paper in this situation she lets the EMTs take charge. This is their field. She has been doing what she can to help secure the wounded and tend to those not as badly injured so they can focus on who are. She looks up as the sounds of chaos stop and find that... "They're all gone?" Well that's a surprise. Still, someone else is missing too. She does a quick look around the scene with a growing look of concern on her face. She does quick work of bandaging a young woman's arm and then turns her focus on the building where she last saw her friend running for. "Sandy? You alright?!"

Prismatic has posed:
    Alexis gives a glare at Dragonlord (and what kind of edgelord calls themselves that?), and she kicks the door open, ushering others out the front and to the paramedics and Jane's waiting help -- before she turns. She blinks, hearing the 'gurk'. The sound of pain and the smell of blood and smoke filling her ears as she barks out "Nightengale!"

    She grasps at her shirt, and rips the bottom half of it off to try and staunch some of the bleeding meanwhile.

    "Hey Sandy, it's Alexis, Sam's girlfriend. We're going to get you taken care of, love, a'ight?" she states gently, and looks to Jane.

    "... Alexis Carr, how do you do?"

Punisher has posed:
As the police start coming in, the Battle Van is already in place, and the side door opens.

*Thwip*

A running man suddenly stumbles as the dart slams into the back of his neck... and winks out into la la land.

The rifle is dropped, and out comes the Punisher into daylight, grabbing up the man by the back of his shirt, picking him up, and tossing him into the back.

Within moments, he'll be heading back out... though that brief sighting will probably get the police riled...

Sandra Billings has posed:
As she clutches her side tighter, Sandy feels the warm blood beneath her palm, soaking her shirt. She coughs again loudly, eyes watering through the smoke as she hears her name. "Jane!" She calls out. "Jane! Help me!"

She never thought she'd have to say those words ever again. Suddenly, there's Alexis! "I.. I'm bleeding.. I can't bleed.. I .. I didn't know I could." She moans out in pain as she slowly struggles to get to her feet. The ground beneath her cracks as she does, splintering around her shoes.

"Hank.."

Siphon has posed:
    Inside the building Tabitha doesn't know that the attackers have left. Only that there's still things on fire and it feels so good but she's still so hungry! But with actual professionals working on the fire from outside it's not long until she's caught in the water flowing down from where the firehoses are apraying. Getting drenched in tepid soot-filled water isn't the best wake up call, but it breaks her focus enough for her to start to leave the building.

    While she's now barefoot and her clothes have several holes burned in them down to her now glowing copper skin, her veil is still intact enough to cover her face. She's nearing the first floor when she hears the call for Nightinggale. Finding the others helping the gut wounded Sandra she briefly fights to keep from being sick and finds a corner where she can be out of the way.

Nightingale has posed:
     It's a call that Shannon cannot and will not ignore. When she hears Alexis calling out to her, she takes one split second to make sure her teammates were safe and well on the way to getting people out of the building. Thankfully, they seem to have matters well in hand.

     But it seems her track record of being able to avoid using her gifts was about to be busted wide open.

     She darts out the front door, closing the distance to where Alexis is doing her best to tend to Sandra. Her brows knit as she sees the injury, kneeling down by their side. "Alexis, Sandy, both of you move your hands aside... and be ready to get me home quickly." She smiles at Sandy, as reassuringly as possible. "You're gonna be okay. Just move your hands aside. I've got this."

     Once the two ladies leave the way clear, Shannon rests her hands directly over Sandy's wound, her hands soon covered in blood. Her eyes close, her voice just a murmur as she begins to bring her gifts to bear. "You lucked out... nothing vital got hit. Hold still... this is just going to feel a little bit warm." Gasping softly in pain, her gifts kick in fully and the transfer begins. Bit by bit, the outpouring of blood is staunched on Sandy, her skin left whole.

     However, on Shannon, blood begins to appear on her once-pristine white sweater, soon soaking through. There is little doubt of what is happening, to those who knew her--and even those who don't, can get a pretty good idea.

     With the healing complete, she moves her hands away, sitting down on the ground and just trying to breathe through the pain.

     "Please, just get me home...."

Pixie has posed:
The clean up crews continue to deal emergency services, and first aid is administered, even as the immediate threat has left. But of course the shooting gets the police attention. Eyes narrow, guns out. "Who goes there? Freeze!" they move towards where the man fell and someone grabbed the unconscious form. But are they too late?

Punisher has posed:
Yeah, that's gonna work.

The police are utterly ignored as the door closes behind the Punisher.

Once up in the front, the Punisher looks over the area, getting a read on the situation in moments. "Yeah, this is gonna be messy." A button is pushed on the dashboard, and the front of the Battle Van suddenly reforms slightly, plates moving into a solid barrier, designed in a ram shape.

*VROOM*

The Battle Van suddenly accelerates full speed at the police cars on the road out, the windows tinted... and it shows no sign of stopping.

Prismatic has posed:
    "Shh, shh, stay with us a moment, love. We've got you." Alexis whispers gently to Sandy, taking the woman's hands and lifting them out of the way so that Shannon can work. She holds the nurse's hands up, her eyes narrowing before she switches her focus, from holding Sandy's hands up, to looping an arm around the winged and worn Nightengale, and struggling to get her up too.

    "This is Alexis -- we're going to need a pick-up. I don't think I'm allowed to charge an uber to the account." she states softly to her bluetooth, and with Shannon on one arm, she inquires "Alice, Tabitha, rendevouz out front. I'm calling us a ride."

Jane Foster has posed:
Jane Foster hears the sounds of her friend calling and goes into emergency response mode. She dives into the ambulance, reflexively looking for one of the kit bags that she grabs and begins bolting to where she heard the sound. Luckily, the lot of mutants are already on scene to help Sandy. "Hey! What's the situation?"

Trained eyes take in Sandy, whom Shannon is already working on. She watches the injuries heal with a relieved expression on her face but it turns more serious as she sees the blood blooming on Shannon. The relation doesn't look to dawn on her, but neither does any shock at what she's seeing.

"Look, you're bleeding. Let me check you and make sure you're stable before you go anywhere?" She asks of Shannon. Not a 'no, you're not leaving' or 'I'm taking you to the hospital'. "Let's get away from this building if we can in case it's unstable."

Siphon has posed:
    It's a good thing that Tabitha was already nearby to hear Alexis, since she doesn't have a phone or anything to be on comms wth. She falls into step behind the group, not knowing how to help but she's used to staying out of the way and she is rather small. This makes it easier to hide behind the others to try and not be noticed, so much as it's possible with the visible parts of her body being all copper and glowy. What all just happened hasn't yet dawned on her. Hopefully she's somewhere out of the way when it does.

Sandra Billings has posed:
Once they are clear of the building and the smoke, Sandy feels Shannon's hands pushed to her stomach, followed by her injuring sealing shut. She sputters out another loud cough to try and clear her lungs.

"Fff.. Ow." She mumbles out as she reaches up with a bloody hand to try and wipe it off on her pants. "Thanks. Is everyone safe? Everyone inside?" She asks as she looks over to the burning building. "What about the .. um.. the nut jobs? Are they gone? The crystal one just vanished."

She stumbles to her feet, eyes widening at the look of Shannon bleeding, then looks over to Jane. "Holy cow, we gotta help her. What happened? Why is she bleeding?"

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon just nods assent. She's not moving anywhere on her own. "Just... fraaak... just got to get this dressed, then let nature take its course at home..." Unless Alexis intervenes, she's not in much of a position to say otherwise. "It's the wound Sandy took... it's mine now, she'll be okay, and I heal fast. It'll be okay in a few days once I'm stitched up...."

Jane Foster has posed:
"Attackers went poof, no clue where. NYFD's getting the others out, we've got several stable and a few en route to the hospital." Jane rattles off to Sandy as she aims to shuffle everyone out of the way of water hoses and falling debris and, oh, fire.

She gestures Shannon to sit as she crouches down beside her. So long as Shannon allows, she'll hike up the end of her shirt so she can look over the injury. There's a dark look in her eye as she grabs out Haemostat gauze and beginning to pack the hole that's appeared in Shannon's abdomen. "I can't tell from here if anything internal is hit, but this isn't good. She needs to get out of here fast, and I take it none of you are in the mood to explain how she got this. How long will your ride take?"

Nightingale has posed:
     "Thanks, Doctor..." Shannon smiles a little bit at Jane, though as the work on packing her wound begins, she presses her lips together in a thin line. Surprisingly, she makes less sound than one might expect, instead breathing her way through the pain. "I'll explain how it happened, if we ever meet again...."