4009/Mutant Kidnappings: Chapter 1

Mutant Kidnappings: Chapter 1
Date of Scene:	04 March 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Mutants attack the mall, and various heroes move to stop them!
Cast of Characters:	Iron Man, Rogue, Black Knight, Shadowlite, Stardust, Redstar, Magneto

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Iron Man has posed:
"ATTACK AT WESTFIELD MALL, ONGOING!" screams the news, but has no details yet.
"MUTANT VENGEANCE?!? Freaks to blame!" screams the internet.
"CHARLIE IS DYING IN FRONT OF ME," screams a victim on-site, with video footage of her friend covered in bright yellow liquid, boils starting to burst all over his skin from the toxin.

Word spreads from there.


The mall itself is complete chaos now; the exterior parking lots are starting to become a hell zone, as people ditch cars and just RUN. It all came out of nowhere, and the masses of people don't know which directions to go in.

At one end of the mall, the north end, it looks like a bizarre explosion went off: thick yellow liquid is sprayed in long splashes over the walls, and people are collapsed here and there, moaning horribly in pain. There are at least a dozen that were hit by it, and the cause is nowhere to be seen, not immediately.

The opposite (south) end of the mall has other problems: it is entirely dark, and occasionally someone comes screaming out of the rear door, as if they were on fire, entirely incoherent.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue wasn't terribly far away from Westfield when it happened, since she was still going to school at NYU she was in southern Manhattan when she'd heard about something going down. And now that she's in full Avengers-mode she's taken to the skies with her winter wool cap pulled down over her head and her black leather jacket zippe dup to her neck.

After flying to the site of the mall thats built on the site of the former World Trader Centers, Rogue knows this place has some of the most security IN Manhattan, but... by the looks of that yellow goo, something pretty nasty must be going on... Someone's probably calling them Ghostbusters by now already.

Rogue floats down to the crazy parking area, she watches people rush by her, while she just look ahead and starts walking TOWARD the danger.

Black Knight has posed:
    It was just a night finishing up a canvas. He wanted to get home to the castle to talk to Janet about something that had occurred to him, but then he had run into one of the mutants that he had helped out after the invasion. Hey had an issue. He keeps a few tools on the horse, and fixed a couple of flanges and a bad power coupling in the leg. It gave him a chance to ask questions. Then, the area goes nuts, and the Black Knight finishes up in a hurry. "Show up at he mansion if it acts up again. Lifetime warranty means it, man." The man's shoulder is patted as the knight vaults on his horse.

    Strider spreads his magnificent wings as the duo are in the air. "Show them the meaning of haste, Strider." There is a small explosion of sound as the horse goes supersonic.It knocks a nearby mutant to his backside. He shakes his fist after the knight. "God-damned second rate, no-name"

    The horse flies into the area via a set of windows, and vanishes, the Black Knight skids to a halt as the beast vanishes in a flash of golden white light. He asks a nearby person, "Where?" The point off that way. He takes off running towards the pointed direction. He's not quite there yet, and does not quite have eyes on the attack just yet.

Shadowlite has posed:
Mutant stuff tends to get Shadowlites attention on the news... but then, this is coming almost right after the attack on mutant town. That means something screwy is probably going on. He had a vested interest in dealing with this, at least.

Luckily for Shadowlite, a pitch dark area means he has an entire section of the mall he can travel into and out of on a whim... and travel he does. Darkforce suit, trenchcoat, and tactical vest all carrying various firearms and tech, Shadowlite forms his Darkforce shell and opens a dimensional portal into the darkness zone. Stepping out with a shotgun in hand, he takes a look around. His inherent mutant ability to see in complete darkness perfectly means he's not as handicapped as others in this section of the mall.

Stardust has posed:
The Internet is beginning to really get on Colette's nerves. Not being a mutant it would be easy for her to shrug this prejudice off, but prejudice in general sits very poorly with her and all this trolling seems to require someone's face punched.

More to the point, Colette spends her spare time as 'Stardust', doing the whole fight crime / save the innocent thing. Since Starfire told her 'You and Damian look after things while I'm gone' before taking leave from the Titans, she's tried to shoulder the burden of presenting the team as being more than the bunch of slackers they so often are. Hence, when trouble calls, she answers.

Flying in low, she takes in as much of the scene as she can before landing on the roof of an abandoned car to consult with her internal mentor. Such questions as 'what's that yellow stuff' and 'am I immune to it' are raised with the voices in her head before she gives voice to a fundamental objection: "I think I left my yellow goop removing spray in my other pants." Concluding that the yellow goop seems to have already done its exploding and that is probably a job for someone with more medical skills than herself, she activates night vision lenses, and heads into the darkness.

  Yellow goop is an unknown quantity. So are mysterious screams, but the mysterious screams seem a bit more of an immediate priority.

Redstar has posed:
Vicky setps out into darkness with Shadowlite. Her blue eyes change with a blink to black as she adjusts her vision to thermal in the darkness. The sound of screams draws her attention and she glances at Shadowlite. For the moment she is taking his lead and doesn't leap out right away. Instead she creeps along the wall until she can see where the screaming is coming from.

They give off no real light the orbs that now float over her hands. But they cause mist to fall about her, almost like they were spheres of liquid nitrogen or something. Waiting, tensed, watching.

Iron Man has posed:
NORTH. (Yellow goo).
    The north end of the mall, the main parking area, is where Rogue lands. One young girl, probably 13, stumbles towards her from the doors, tears streaming down her cheeks, trying to wipe a yellow smear off of her left arm. Her jeans are splatted with it, but it seems mostly her arm is the problem. "Jasooooon," she yells out into the parking lot, fearful, calling for a friend, perhaps.

SOUTH (Darkness).
    The dark zones aren't artifically dark. It seems to truly just be that the lights are out, such as an electrical problem. But inside the dark, the place is truly crawling with motion. Colette and Shadowlite have different experiences with it, however. As Colette comes in the doors, and passes into the dark area, the night vision goggles reveal that the floor is teeming with roaches. It is a dizzying swirl of motion, as the roaches eat... the corpses on the floor. Corpses with hollow eyes. There's a clown there. And a pony. And two twins. Is that a giant parakeet with lasers for eyes? And Colette, that's probably your grandmother. And she's coming for you. You need braces, she's saying, and she'll use this hammer to put them in.

Shadowlite and Vicky will see mostly just people at first. They are huddled all over. One woman is yelling about that her son is gone, the ghost took it. And then a ghostly shape slides out of a wall next to Shadowlite, and stares at him with hollow eyes. Vicky will see the ghost as well. Do they both see it? Yes.

Magneto has posed:
     Far above the mall a lone figure stands mid-air watching over the bridge of his nose from behind a purple and crimson helmet. The T shape on the front of the helmet shrouds most of his features in shadow as he watches the proceedings from afar. His cape flutters slowly in the strong winds from being so high up as he takes the whole sight in.

     Fingers wrap slowly on his arm as he hovers watching the world pass him by as new figures come to the rescue. Perhaps they have this all well in hand? That never stopped him before. His eyes narrow at the figures as they arrive one by one on the scene. Head tilts back slightly allowing him to get a slightly better angle on the scene as he slowly begins to float down.

     Meanwhile on the other side of the city James Rhodes sets inside the drivers seat of his 1963 Chrysler Turbine car, his CB radio blares out information on the chaos happening at the mall grabbing his attention and causing his eyes to narrow. He looks down towards the radio for a long moment an expression of sheer determination across his face as he speaks to himself. "Don't worry people, War Machine is on the way." His hands reach up to the steering wheel locking into place with a firm grip, he leans forward eyes locked ahead as he readies to speed off to the private Air-strip so he can join in on the fun.

     Key goes into the ignition of his turbine car, the engine spins to life with all the roar a jet engine provides. He slamms his foot on the gas and speeds out of the parking garage swinging around the corner as his tires speed out! He's traveling as fast as his car can carry him to get him there on time to provide assistance only he can provide.

     For all of about four feet as he slams his foot on the breaks skidding to a halt just inches behind the rear fender of a taxi. His confident stance falters, his shoulders droop as his jaw quivers for a moment before falling open. He slams his head down onto the horn of his car letting out a frustrated scream into the leather.

     For miles ahead of him it's bumper to bumper traffic not a single vehicle budging more then an inch as it seems an accident on the road has taken down the main street down to a single lane. Cars ahead and behind him blare out their horns barely moving at all before the light changes from green to red leaving cars trapped in the midst of the intersection.

     Slamming his head into the steering wheel one more time first Rhodey throws his head back into the headrest shouting up to the sky at the top of his lungs, as if whoever had caused this could hear him and somehow fix it. "Why!" His voice echo's out in frustration bounding off the walls.

     High above the city Magneto perks his ears for a moment dropping his intimidating facade for just a moment to look around himself. His arms drop from their folded position as he twists about looking for the source of whatever he'd just heard. Then he recomposes himself folding his arms back one over the other to look down at the mall.

Rogue has posed:
With her gloved hands inside of her black leather jacket, Rogue just watches the woman rush out of the goopy mall and exclaim in fear or sorrow over some Jason person? Hopefully not the one from Crystal Lake, or Rogue's gonna peace-out on this heroing expedition.

"Hmmm." The teenager says, putting her green eyes back onto the building. She starts forward then, leather boots walking across the parking lot as she just casually / calmly gets closer and closer to whatever is going on. As she gets up to the Mall's curb, there's a truck left in the way that is blocking pedestrian fleeing traffick, so she just takes a moment to pick that truck up and carry it over out of the way where she sets it down again.

"There, ya'll, run free and easier!" Rogue says with a grin. "Hero stuff is so easy..." She idly says that with a light exhale.

Shadowlite has posed:
The shotgun is raised into an idle position as he looks in the ghosts direction, "You can see that, right?" Shadowlite asks Vicky as he squints behind his AR goggles... turning in place towards the ghost as he pops a bean bag shell into his shotgun -the original shell replaced in his vest- just in case. "Please tell me you can see creepy hollow eyes over there." Shadowlite quips, before he tilts his head, "Hey. Can you understand me, bucko?" He asks of the ghost. The people huddling don't seem to be in serious danger... so he just goes with it. Maybe it's Casper?

Redstar has posed:
Ghosts? Vicky has seen weirder shit and she frowns and looks from it to Shadowlite and back. "The fuck," She mutters as she holds a globe of super-frost before her. It is both a threat and a defense though likely useless against whatever it is. "I see it," She says and takes a step back from it with great care.

~I see it too, for what it is worth," Starr, the demon bound to Vicky's soul eternal, comments thoughtfully. ~Shift our eyes.~ The demon coaches and Vicky's eyes revert completely to thermal vision once more, staring at where the ghost was.

Stardust has posed:
It's amazing how adaptive the human mind is. Colette has seen a lot of weirdness before, so this just seems like more of the same. One of her best friends is an illusion-loving chaos magician after all. Things like this happen all the time! Hovering off the roach-infested floor, she attempts to process the scene her eyes tell her is in front of her, and answer the all-important question: who to punch. Corpses? Too late for them. Clowns? All clowns deserve a punch. Pony? Two twins like something out of The Shining? Grandma? None of this makes any sense! However a giant parakeet with laser eyes? That's sure to be evil. Go punch that!

  Stardust flies forwards to engage with the parakeet, but before she's moved more than a few feet, the darkness is suddenly pierced by a brilliant yellow light, as she is momentarily surrounded by a halo of luminous plasmic filaments, as if she had turned into a sun. Nobody is more surprised by this than Stardust, who comes to an instant half and asks "Uh... Ash? What the hell was that?" The annoying yet occasionally reassuring Australian-accented voice she is expecting does not answer. Instead her brain is filled with a sudden hubbub of voices, mostly in alien languages. She grimaces and clamps her hands to her ears, and yells "SHUT UP!".

Apparently this works, as she blinks, lowers her hands, and looks around. And is then immediately frozen in place, apparently cocooned in some mirror-substance. Seconds tick by and the mirror-cocoon vanishes. Stardust blinks some more, looks around, sighs and says to the air: "Okay. What the hell?" The chaos seems to be subsiding around her as the many minds in her mind slowly start to develop some sense of a consensus as to what is and isn't real.

Black Knight has posed:
    His elven made (no, really) made boots slide on a bit of wax as Black Knight's human vision begins to fail as his path grows darker. He hisses to himself. "Should have brought a torch." His right hand snatches up a cylinder off his belt and there is a snap and a hiss followed by a blaze of golden-white light and an ominous ionizing hum straight out of a popular movies series. They got that much right, you see. The golden-white light is about 4 feet long and casts long shadows as Black Knight lifts his photonic blade upwards ever so slightly, to get a better view as he regards the area.

    He does not have low light, or infravision, and so his pace is slowed as he jogs into the darker mall. His frown is deep and the knight knows that he just gave a signal where he is. The blade gives its low, ionizing hum as the Knight moves forwards, his pace slowed by the darkness and the relatively low lumens cast off by the blade; most of them are directed to make it a weapon, not to use as a makeshift light.

Magneto has posed:
     Hovering to ground level Magnus floats above the ground on his way over towards the mall's southern entrance. He's taking his time moving his way along as he takes in the carnage. There was something satisfying about humans enduring this suffering after all the suffering his own kind had been caused, something about this that simply filled his heart with song.

     The suffering of those who'd willingly allowed so much suffering to transpire was simply too beautiful for words. However he was here with a purpose and that purpose he would fulfill. After all he did give his word.

     Holding a hand out to one side Magneto rips the headlight out from a nearby vehicle violently and destructively floating it over to himself. Soon after he rips out the cars battery, and a small collection of wiring. After a bit of tinkering the headlight shines brightly out ahead of him as it floats in place along with the battery, allowing him to see in the darkness of the mall as he floats along.

Iron Man has posed:
NORTH:
    Rogue gets a very different response that she probably expected with lifting that truck. Some sobbing yellow-splatted people see her lift the car. And there's screaming. "Please don't hurt us," sobs an older man, unable to run away from her, limping away from the mall. "ANOTHER ONE OUT HERE," yells somebody. And those nearby react as if Rogue were a terrorist. Another mutant, outside. They scatter from Rogue. At least, at first. More people that are trying to leave the mall aren't aware she's scary and rush past her. But it's thinning out: whoever could run out of the north end has probably mostly done so.
    Rogue also gets a message. An Avenger one. "Hey, so. You've got that handled, right?" ...It's from Stark.

SOUTH
    Shadowlite's ghost opens it's mouth, clearly understanding. Or maybe just yawning. It bends down, to the huddled person a few yards away from Shadowlite and Vicky: and promptly starts to slowly and methodically suck the life out of the person, turning them into a horribly deformed, sunken shape. Vicky and Starr will see this too, although it will feel slightly off. Something's wrong between their perceptions. But whatever it is, it's subtle. The only heat the thermals are seeing is related to the people huddled all over, and the 'natural' things like Colette's grandma and roaches. Incidentally, the light itself had very little effect on the items. The roaches were just very brightly lit! They also don't behave like REAL roaches. They should have scattered. Are they real? If they are, does that make the pony real?
"I'm sorry, I'll shut up; but-- please. PLEASE. I hate roaches, make it stop," sobs a lady to Colette's left, thinking she yelled at her, that has hidden herself on top of a display for wonder bras. She is bent over a child, protecting him. Does that mean the roaches are real?

Dane gets empty zones at first, he's in bedding, and then finds his way into bathroom accessories. The towels don't seem possessed. It's clear in this area, at first. Then a ghostly shape drifts directly through from the side of a wall, lit up by Dane's light. A checkout girl runs towards Dane. "Please, help me!" she asks urgently.

Magneto's light shines in as he goes for a side access, near the south end of the mall. The darkness peels back, and reveals empty corridor at first. Where are the people? He's got a lovely private view of the food court. It's in disarray, but appears empty. There are loads of metal tables and things in there. No, wait, not empty. There is a man laying by one of the drink machines, using water to wash off weird yellow stuff from his hands, using light from his cell phone in his teeth. He turns to look at the light.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue stands there with her gloved fists on her hips, giving them all the glorious opportunity to look upon her in the same (stolen) style that she knows her favorite person/hero would stand like... Captain Marvel. But the people aren't showering her thanks and praise?

Rogue's chin dips and she tilts her head at people screaming in FRIGHT at her instead? "Wait, what?" She says back at them before more people blow past her and almost knock right into her.

Her arms drop from her heroic stance and she starts to walk toward the building now, floating up off of the ground to stay away from goop, cause goop is gross.

Rogue's right hand goes up to her ear when she hears Toe-Knee's voice. "Oh yeah, sure, I got this. No problem. I know exactly whats goin' on here, Miste'ah Stark." Its obvious in her voice she has no idea whats going on here.

Redstar has posed:
"Oh hells no," Vicky says and moves to scoop up the downed person being drained by the ghost. A small jump with her strength takes her across the courtyard where they are, landing on the other side with the person craddled in her arms. The thermal vision is dropped and she blinks in confusion at what she is seeing. A frown of frustration creasing her brow.

"I'll be back," She calls into the dark before taking a leap and gliding towards one of the exits. It may not be a tall enough mall for her to flap her wings properly, but super glides?

~I do not believe I am quite seeing what you are...~ The demon says in puzzlement. ~Be wary, pet.~ Vicky scowls in the dark as she moves with a bit more care.

(What do you mean?) O o Vicky thinks as she lands and looks about the area she finds herself in.

~I don't know...yet.~

Black Knight has posed:
    Shadows dance and lengthen as the Black Knight adjusts his swords. The linens and towels are thankfully not particularly lethal as yet, no shrieking bedspreads move to attack him. That is a small comfort.

    The lightsaber goes into his left hand. Steel sighs on leather as his right hand reaches and he draws a darkly blazing blade. Once pure, centuries of bloodletting have driven this meteoric metal blade to the dark side, and Black Knight steels himself against the urge to slake the Ebony Blade's thirst for blood. It has a vague malevolence about it, as if possessing an elusive, menacing aura even more so than the gleaming edge of the impossible metal should command.

    Dark eyes settle on the ghostly woman. "Show me, and I will do what I can to help. Lead on." This is not the first ghost he has seen, and knowing Dane Whitman's luck, it shall not be the last he sees before darkness finally takes him.

Shadowlite has posed:
"That doesn't feel like Darkforce... Hey bucko. I don't know if you got the memo or not, but grabbing essence like you're sipping latte? Most people don't appreciate that, and I'm not interested in being dinner." Shadowlite brings up the shotgun, firing the shell directly into Anti-Casper. The sound carries throughout the Mall easily, without a suppressor. He brings up his left hand then, and a dimensional portal opens directly in front of himself. "There's more going on here..." Shadowlite hops into the black portal... and the opposite end opens in the northern sections, where the rest of the trouble was.

Rogue will spot the portal easily, since it takes a few seconds for it to open and deposit the Darkforce mutant. His attention is immediately on his surroundings as he pumps another bean bag shell into the shotgun chamber.

Stardust has posed:
"Not you," Stardust replies to the woman who thought she was being yelled at, barely glancing at her. "I was talking to someone else. The roaches ain't real. Probably."

  Finally, the voice she'd for once wanted to hear speaks up, in her head. "Colette, there's psychic interference. You're not ready for something like this. Get out of here." "Like hell," she replies angrily. "You're always..." she stops herself, realizing she's probably going to scare the natives if she keeps talking aloud to someone only she can here. She looks back at the woman, then down at her child. "You need to get out of here." She raises her voice, to be heard by anyone else nearby. "Everybody... out! Now! Run. The roaches aren't... ugh. I'll clear a path. Anyone injured, yell. I'll carry you out." Deciding that persuading people the roaches are an illusion (which she's only about 98% sure of herself) will only slow things down, she tears down a display placard and uses it as a giant scoop to scoop a pathway free of roaches leading to the exit. If it doesn't move them out of the way? Well it's going to be a lot easier to persuade people it's an illusion.

Magneto has posed:
     "Good evening," Magnus starts as he floats closer. "Quite the mess around here wouldn't you say?" Spoken in a calm and conversational tone as he looks towards the metal tables. On the bright side at least he's got plenty of material to work with should something go wrong. He preempts the question he assumes is coming next. "It's either a terrible attack, or quite the rawkus party if I do say so." A smile crossing his face as he gets a good read on the man before him shining the light his way. "My name is Magnus, and you are?"

Iron Man has posed:
NORTH:
    "Great!" Tony answers Rogue, relieved. "If you need backup, either of you, let me know," Tony encourages them, in a distracted manner. Them being Rogue and Dane. Don't worry, Tony will be moral support, during whatever it is he's doing.

As Shadowlite reappears and transfers to the north section, the portal will open into a disgusting array of sprayed walls and people that appear to be moaning in pain. Some of them are unconscious, but there has to be about two dozen downed people in the yellow stuff, that is causing awful toxic lesions on their flesh. Some of them are massive, if they got really hit: swollen up like golf balls in spots. The cause of it is nowhere to be seen: it's just pure disaster of victims here. At least it's well lit?

SOUTH
    The ghost entirely ignored the shotgun blast, and actually still was trying to suck on nothing as Vicky rescued the guy. As if the ghost wasn't fully aware that the guy even was rescued. Then again, maybe he did shoot it, it started to fade, but Shadowlite was already gone by then. And Vicky has now moved to scout. There is a figure running towards the darkness: moving, on a darkened escalator with no power, covered in yellow goop, now at the edge of the darkness. Charging up the stairs, and coming up FAST. Possibly a mutant who can resist the yellow stuff? She's really moving. As this is Vicky's first encounter with anything yellow, this may seem harmless enough, or part of the insanity of the ghosts, except she's running towards, not away. She hasn't seen Vicky.

Dane's checkout girl is confused by his question. "There's a ghost right there!" She says to him, pointing directly at it, and moving to partially hide behind him. "Let's go let's go let's go, my herrrro," she attempts to encourage Dane, tugging at his elbow. The ghost orients towards them, and... a second one starts to come out of the wall, jaw slack, open a good two feet, teeth mangled and leering at Dane and his new checkout girl sidekick.

Magneto's new friend is blinded somewhat by the giant headlight. But he takes in the hovering. The calm question. "...George." he indicates himself. "There's some crazy witch. She spit all over me, and all these people," George says, angry, to Magneto. Not so much fear, though. "Some crazy person making us look bad... /again/."

Iron Man has posed:
Colette is fully able to scoop the roaches, except that they cover the thing she's using as her scoop tool pretty effectively. So it's sort of a weird battle with the roaches, who want to climb the scooper. With some attempts she'll get the hang of it and can get them to spread, if she can also get the people to stop huddling and MOVE. Getting the people out does start to remove other elements, though: The twins and the pony disappear with a few people that Colette clears the way for.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue floats through the mall's gooped up corridors "Uh huh." She says back, distractedly toward Tony over the comms. "I think this is a mutant outbreak'a some kind. Might have'ta place a call to the Professah's place." Its unclare if she's talking to herself or some of the others or just talking outloud, she's just kinda zoned in to what she's seeing here.

At the sight of a portal up here, Rogue floats on in that direction. "Yep. definitely mutants." She mutters. "Or... ya know, the devil. One'a the two. All I know is I don't get paid nearly enough for this kinda crap."

Magneto has posed:
     "An absolute pleasure to make your acquaintance George," Spoken as he pulls the light away from pointing it in his face. "Oh, now we can't have that can we?" Asked in a very calm voice as he turns slightly to one side. "No, that won't do at all." His arms are folded one over the other as he mulls it over allowing his chin to rest on a gloved fist. "I suppose there's nothing else for it then." Spoken with a low tsk under his breath. "I'll simply need to educate this misguided soul on the error of her ways."

     "Now tell me, George," He pauses for a moment looking over his shoulder towards him. "Where did you last see this witch?" Another slow pause. "I'd very much like to engage in a quick dialogue with her."

Redstar has posed:
For the moment Vicky is treating everyone as a foe, and this woman doesn't seem to be terrified like everyone else. She ducks behind an ornamental display and sets her unconscious person down. A globe appears hovering about her hand, mist softly floating and dissipating about it.

~Wait till she is past then shoot,~ Starr says in her soft purr of a voice. Vicky rolls her eyes in response, crouched and read to do just that.

(Stop back seat driving,) O o Vicky thought at the demon, lips moving silently as she does so. She hasn't gotten the hang of just mind to mind communication down yet.

Stardust has posed:
98% sure... 99% sure... 100% sure. Okay, there is no way roaches would be running up the scoop. They're illusions, no question remains in Stardust's mind. She rushes around like a maniac, herding everyone past the roaches, keeping up a busy monologue about how this is all illusion: "Yep, see how they are just scurrying up there? Real roaches would be running. Ever tried stomping a roach? Those guys are outta here just like that! Did any of you guys see the pony? I mean come on. And that giant parakeet. Someone's messing with your heads. Let's go people!" Hopefully the reassurances and chatty banter will help people break through the fear. And if there are a few holdouts who are slowing the process down? Well Stardust isn't too shy to yank a few people up and /fly/ them out if they won't move quickly enough.

When she's cleared the area of bystanders, or at least as many as she can see, Stardust goes straight back inside the darkness. She knows that mostly what she's facing in there is illusion, but there has to be someone or something creating the illusion. As she strides into the gloom, she bellows at the top of her voice. "Hey! Whoever's doing the illusions? I liked the parakeet. The parakeet was cool! Everyone thinks sharks with laser beams, but parakeets with laser beams? Genius. Let's talk! Where are yoooooou? Come out, come out wherever you are!"

Shadowlite has posed:
The voice mask for Shadowlite responds. "I've met the devil already. We didn't get along very well." Shadowlite quips to Rogue. "You can call me Shadowlite." Shadowlite stares at the yellow stuff, then. "Some sort of topical poison, but without a lab I can't confirm that." Shadowlite is a biochemist?

Then, he slips the shotguns safety on and straps it on. "Probably a mutant with some sort of poison."

Then, Shadowlite brings up both hands... and his body begins to emit a black, inky smoke, and he audibly grunts as thin Darkforce sheets are brought into existence all around, giving everyone around him a clear path out of the area... the yellow goop overlayed by those sheets, "I'm.... not going to be able to hold this for more than a few minutes. Everyone get out of here that can walk. Everyone else, I'm pretty sure the ambulances are coming."

Black Knight has posed:
    Black Knight adjusts the lightsaber with a thumb toggle to its stun setting. "They are illusions." He tells the check out girl. He almost sneers at the ghosts. "Go the way I cam. About 150 feet that way, it gets brighter." He assures the girl. "Just go. If you see a ghost, they are not real. They don't show as magic." He pauses and regards the girl. "Trust me. I have a ghost that lives in my basement, I know what they look like."

    Were he there to hear it, Sir Percy would be scandalized to be compared to such creatures. "This Black Knight." His com traffic is clear on the Avengers channel. "If you see a ghost, it is almost certainly not real. Be on he look out for illusions, and possible psychics. I repeat, those are not ghosts. Make sure they are not bystanders or hostages."

    "Probably not ghosts."He adds after a moment, and again shoos the girl. "Straight that way." he points. "It gets brighter about 150 feet out, I came in through a window, the door below it was too small for the horse. Just go!"

    He holds his sword aloft, making sure sure she gets off before moving further inwards.

Iron Man has posed:
NORTH:
    Tony doesn't reply to Rogue at first. Then finally he does. "OKay. Looking into the security systems there. I think I can see you. Wave, will you? This camera is covered in something yellow," Tony complains through the comm channel. "And the power seems off in the other wing. Watch out for that."

The victims, ignored by Rogue, mostly just lay there in the goo. They don't do anything special other than sob and beg now and then. It's really awful.

"She got me on her way by here. I played dead. She's /mental/," George says to Magneto. He's almost finished washing his arm. It is still angrily swollen. "This itches like MAD," he adds. "I just saw her go racing off into the dark. I don't know." A pause. "She's covered in snot. Can't miss her."

Vicky certainly hasn't missed seeing a person covered in snot. Who has not at all oriented or seen Vicky at all. Vicky has a very clean shot, if she wants to take it. Aside from running the wrong way, she seems very intent on going into the darkness. And is snarling a little, perhaps in frustration, or something else.

Shadowlite's attempt to get the sprayed people to walk on scary black 'floor' works for a few that were hiding, but most of them are too injured to do anything but beg to be lifted out of the puddles of stuff. Maybe Shadowlite and Rogue have gloves? Yuck.

SOUTH
    Colette has successfully saved a dozen people from the front. She clears all of it, though she has to pick up a few people. When the roaches vanish, things get far easier, and the people want to get out of there anyway. And then she charges in to demand answers, but only finds... ghosts. The ghosts stare at her. And one screams, and pitches a few hangers at her in terror. The hangers are real. But they are just hangers.

Dane's new friend doesn't like going into the darkness. She does, however, really dislike the ghosts closing on them. So she bolts, for the direction he sent her in. One of the ghosts also fades out, as she does. The other one tries to intimidate Dane. It comes over, and appears to melt the checkout table into ribbons of decaying mass.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's not going to sit around and wait for any Emergency Services to show up. "I got this." She says over the comms while she dips down and hovers over the goop. Rogue reaches out to takew a couple of hand sand she moves to lift people up out of the yellow sludge. "Come on, lets get you outta here, ya little lovelies." Rogue's going after the people who look the most distressed or in-need, if there's any children then that'd be the ones she's after most. Intending to aide them by turning and taking them back toward the exit to get them out of here, she'd HOPEfully want to clear the hallway before delving any deeper into this giant snot wad of a mall.

Magneto has posed:
     "Thank you George, I do hope you'll enjoy the rest of your evening." He floats off calling back as he uses the headlight to brighten his way. "I've a Salem witch trial to run, so don't wait up for me." Floating off down the hall at a fairly decent speed looking around for any sign of the woman covered in snot. As he travels he hums an old German tune that's close to his heart. Occasionally he slows down to shine a light into one of the stalls.

Shadowlite has posed:
As if to support Rogue, those Darkforce sheets start to move on their own.... that Darkforce mist intensifying as people are cleaned off by elastic Darkforce sheets if cleaning doesn't make it worse, and he starts to 'drag' everyone out of the area to deposit them in safety outside of the affected area.

Shadowlites audibly grunting from the effort by this point, and his breathing gets heavier as he works. The exertion of so many constructs at once taking a lot of focus for his abilities as he goes, the dark mist flowing off of him as he goes.

Black Knight has posed:
    The Black Knight regards it. "I stood on a sharpened log while 500 Seracens came hurtling down on us at the battle of Atides." He will walk right through the illusion on his way past, if it is possible. he holds his lightsaber even higher.

    His eyes are flat and very old for a moment,as he remembers. He thinks that is the battle he died in just as the Avengers drew him back. At least, he thinks he was dying, of he should have been. He cannot actually die while he holds the Ebony Blade, save under one circumstance. Can still get mauled pretty good though.

    Unless stopped, he will keep on moving out to any others who might be around.

Redstar has posed:
The orb of super-frost goes hurtling at the back of snot-girl's back, followed my another aimed at her feet less than a second later. Cool clarity and lack of fear drive her forward. The woman intent to drive Snotty to the ground if the blast of liquid nitrogen doesn't.

~It would be so much easier to just kill her and move on,~ Starr says casually as the battle goes on. An annoying little commentary as orbs are lobbed.

"NOT NOW!" Vicky roars in annoyance at Starr, pissed at the demon's 'help'.

Stardust has posed:
Stardust is a little surprised as she's hit by a hanger that isn't an illusion. Maybe these ghosts are... real? "Seriously? Do I look like a winter coat? I don't need no hangers. Just a friendly chat with whoever is doing this. Also, hangers? You could have someone's eye out. I mean not mine, I'm kinda invulnerable and stuff, but really. Bad ghosts. Trying to scare me, huh? I ain't afraid of no ghosts...." Wooo...

"~If there's something strange~"

"~In your neigborhood~"


Stardust shimmies and dancing her way past the ghosts, yes, singing.

"~If there's something weird~"

"~and it don't look good~"

% She does a long foot slide and jazz hands "~who you gonna call?~"

She stops suddenly and holds her hands out. "Hey ghosties, don't worry. I'm not gonna bust you unless you cause trouble," she calls out at one as she passes. "Come on ghost dudes. Tell me what's going on here and we can all go home. Including you!" As she chatters away, she continues on into the darkness in search of whatever is causing all this. 'Cos the ghosts, she figures, are symptom rather than cause.

Iron Man has posed:
NORTH:
    Rogue and Shadowlite work together to help the injured. And it matters a great deal to those people. They thank them. They also provide information. One of them saw the spitting mutant get shoved directly into them by someone else. The victims are in pain, and want to go to the hospital, but the clues are there, if they want to follow up.

SOUTH:
    Vicky's frost attack downs the wet, yellow sticky female, and she falls flat. And... goes just berserk. Yellow streams of liquid lash out in huge arcs from her hands as she flails towards the ground, splashing walls, floor. She screams bloody murder. Magneto is well in range to observe and hear all of this, and can easily get his light on the situation to witness it. She is acting like a weird feral animal.

Stardust may pick up from the sounds that the ghosts sound exactly like terrified humans. The illusions are probably just visually overlaying them. Overlaying real people. The illusionist, if that is what this is, is really pulling all the stops to scare everyone.

One of the ghosts actually separates from a human as the human suddenly runs for cover, crying. It's an older male, so let's pretend less crying, for his sake. The other illusions start to break as well, as if the whole house of cards were collapsing. Dane, similarly, will see this. The illusions are falling apart. Something has changed. Dane will help a few people, but they are mostly just exhausted, and glad the ghosts are gone.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue certainly was observing the darkforce energies, but she definitely had no idea what they were... but they seemed to be helping, so once they were outside she'd spend some time speaking to the people and trying to reaffirm them that they're okay. She'd be pressing them lightly for information on what the hell had happened here though. Hopefully her actions would help prove that mutants weren't ALL bad.

"Just gotta stay away from these Malls, right?" She says to a couple. "Sides, all the best shit is cheaper on the internet anyway, and they got drones that bring it out to your house now anyhow? Its 2026. We gotta live up the benefits'a the future and, yeah, get the hell away from these places!" She motions toward the mall with one goopy gloved hand.

Magneto has posed:
     Suddenly out of the floor erupt water pipes, and metal from all directions. Chunks of flooring and the walls explode out in a shower of debris as they twist and contort with the speed of bullets. First they catch a leg, then an arm, then her neck, in mere fractions of seconds she's bound up like a mummy. It goes from a perfectly normal moment of panic to an almost complete encasement from seemingly nowhere.

     Slowly into view Magnus floats allowing his headlight to be sat down to one side as he lets out a low sigh. His attention on the now bound woman as he tilts his head from one side to the other. "When I heard the word witch I expected...." He looks over to Starr. "More." Having paused as if to allow her a chance to respond for him.

Redstar has posed:
*CRACK* A simple fist, a love tap for Vicky, to the back of Snotty's head and she goes limp. "Well, ew," She says and stands. The slime follows her in sticky masses and she makes a face. "Oh that's just gross!" Her own toughness and regeneration means she doesn't even notice the cohrosive effect.

Once more orbs swell into being and in addition the area for 200 feet in all directions is slammed with arctic temperatures. The chill gripping and, hopefully, freezing the gelatinous grosseness spewed about. The cold lasts awhile, only slowly changed by the buildings own damaged environmental controls.

~For once I agree with you. Ew.~ Starr agrees, for once glad to not having to deal with it.

Black Knight has posed:
    Indeed. THe Black Knight seems to have gone the wrong damn way again. He has done this before, and he shall likely do it again. As the Black Knight gathers up some people, he starts to herd them on out and hopefully to safety. "Move it. That way." he guides them with his gleaming lightsaber, and as yet has not found the mutant master of magnetism, so he doesn't know he needs to be calling in every Avenger in the Tri-state region.

    For now, the Black Knight is content to shepherd his charges to safety, though the nagging doubt about why the illusions started to fall apart really bothers him. He cannot help but worry he has one of the culrpits with him, yet can do nothing to stop them.

Stardust has posed:
Stardust sighs to herself as she realizes that with the illusions faltering, for whatever reason, she's back on evac duty. "IT'S ALL AN ILLUSION!" she bellows. "Tricks of the mind! Get out of here, now! RUN!"

Those people she can herd out, she herds out, guiding them towards the exit as quickly as possible. Those who are slower on the uptake as the illusions collapse, she's prepared to chase out, making ghostly "Woo! I am a ghost! Run!" comments. A few she'll just pick up and carry out. There may be a few flailing fists but she doesn't mind those. Any more uh... messy reactions she gets from the most afraid? Well she's gonna be carrying them from above.

As the noises of feral witches and rending pipes(not to mention a sudden blast of arctic air) reach her, Stardust comes to a halt to look back into the darkness, still trying to urge people past. "Hey! Sounds like the bad guys are coming this way!" she yells. "Move! Run! Man I hope it comes this way so I can cover you guys' retreat. I'll be all... 'YOU SHALL NOT PASS!' C'mon, c'mon, fly you fools!" She's having way too much fun with this.

However Stardust doesn't actually have a stone bridge to defend, so rather than hanging around, she takes to the air and flies through the dark building in the direction of the sounds. Her passage is marked by the odd crashing sound, because she's moving fast and it's dark. Night vision lenses don't really show up walls and windows all that well.

Before long, leaving only a small amount of damage in her wake, honest, Stardust shows up to find Vicky and Magneto wrapping the whole thing up, rather literally. "Uh. Gross. Did King Kong sneeze, or what's going on here?"

Iron Man has posed:
NORTH:
    The heroes, working together (well, sort of), have taken care of the worst of the problem. There are lots of people to recover from hiding spots in the mall, and get to medical help. Most of those are the ones that were splattered by the ugly yellow toxin.

SOUTH:
    On the other side of the mall, something changed. The ghosts just ... disappeared. Something happened, though it is not obvious what it is. But it does seem linked to the people finally being moved outside: fewer people, fewer insane illusions? But what of the illusionist? If there is one, they blend in with all of the other people.... for now.

Shadowlite has posed:
Once everyone is out of the area, the constructs fade, and Shadowlite audibly let's out a breath. "Frigging seriously, I hate maintaining that many." Then, his energy is back, almost like he's the energizer bunny, and he snaps off a mock salute to Rogue, "Pretty sure they'll be fine with treatment. Catch ya later, cutie." Shadowlite notes, before that portal is opened again... and he disappears with a hop into it.

At the other end, Shadowlite hops onto a conjured black disk as he starts to fly around... and nearly catches yellow goop on him as the woman starts to spray. "Well then." Shadowlite then brings himself up and over to the goop, checking if it's the same as from outside.

"King Kong did not, in fact, sneeze... but yellow snot woman over here did." Shadowlite quips.

Redstar has posed:
Vicky turns towards Magneto and smiles a bit. "Ah, hello again," She says as she pulls the last hardened bit of good from her body. Tossing it to the ground she looks down at the unconscious good girl and then around. "Huh, where did the ghosts go?"

~I have a theory... Starr starts, her tone thoughtful.

"It could be bunnies," Vicky mutters and shakes her head as she turns towards Shadowlite. "That was fucking gross!" She tells him bluntly.

Stardust has posed:
Stardust eyes the various people gathered around goo girl with wary curiosity, eyes flicking from Magneto to Vicky to Shadowlite. Are these the bad guys, and in need of having their faces punched? Nope, apparently not. "Yellow snot woman." She peers at Shadowlite. "Hey, aren't you the guy that punched that lame-o villain I was arresting in the face the other day? So, is Yellow Snot Woman like her actual name? That would be a codename that would drive anyone to evil."

  Stardust forwards, peering down at the prone, and disgusting form. "I feel sorry for whoever has to arrest that. I hope they have thick gloves. So is that who was casting the illusions?" She frowns a little. "Or did someone in the crowd with illusion-making powers get terrified of the snot beast and lose their mind? I think there was some kind of psychic interference going on at one point. So, could be that. Is anyone missing an illusion-caster?"

Redstar has posed:
Vicky turns to look at Colette and smiles a little. "I think Snotty is a good one. And don't let him give nicknames," A finger is pointed at Shadowlite where he sits in the air on his disc. "He is really bad at it," She steps away from the snot and begins to toss more orbs at still-sticky and gooey spots. But the arctic temperatures are quickly taking care of it.

~That is what it was. Psychic influence on our senses. Interesting...I am one to bet it was...'Snotty' that was doing the manipulation.~ Starr comments thoughtfully. Vicky purses her lips as she considers it, then shrugs a shoulder.

"Well, I don't know about you. Buuuuuuut I'm out of here before anyone official shows up. The cops still don't like me," She says and turns to look up at Shadowlite. "Am I flying or you porting?"

Magneto has posed:
     There's a long moments pause from Magneto as he looks around at the others. "Well I suppose my work here is done." He looks to each of them for a moment each before simply shooting off the ground and through the skylight with his arms folded one over the other his helmet taking care of the impact through the glass. Even if no one notices he still knows how to make an exit.

Shadowlite has posed:
Floating in the air on his black disk, Shadowlite gives a look to Vicky... and he can be heard laughing, "Welcome to biology, especially mutant biology." Shadowlite then starts to look around... and forms a small tube of thin Darkforce as he takes a sample of the goop, before placing the sealed container in his trenchcoat.

"Some sort of mild localized poison, mainly causes allergic reactions from the looks of it." Then, Shadowlite notices the woman wrapped in metal... and finally over to Magneto and the rest, "Well. Hello there." Shadowlite dryly states in general, his voice mask built into his balaclava mask doing it's job well. Then, Collette speaks, "Yellow snot woman is the nickname I gave to her." Shadowlite points to the woman wrapped in metal, "But, she's been stopped."

Vicky starts to insult his taste, then. "I am -not-that bad!" Shadowlite complains, before he looks over to the exits, "Yeah.... yeah." Shadowlite turns in place to regard Magneto, then, as he flies off. "Interesting. I thought he'd be taller." Shadowlite then reaches out with his right hand, and a black mist flows from it as a black portal starts to open again, arcing electricity as it solidifies, "After you." Shadowlite offers to Vicky.

Redstar has posed:
"You called her yellow snot woman!" Vicky replies as she crouches and takes a small leap up, wings beating to carry her up and next to the black clad Darkforce user. Magneto's exit earns a glance and raised brow. "Hmph. Dramatic much?" She mutters. "I have one word for you, sir, Frigidia," And then she slips through the portal.

Stardust has posed:
"The cops don't like any of us," Stardust assures Vicky. "We create paperwork. I figure they know there are supers involved, so you've got about afive more minutes of them securing the perimeter before they risk coming in and finding their paperwork doubled."

Magneto's departure is marked by a shattering of glass, some of which falls on Stardust. She rolls her eyes, and pulls shards of glass from her hair. "Great. I avoid the snot and get glassed instead. So. I see what you mean about nicknames. Yellow Snot Woman. Poor... whatever she is. And, clearly someone should be going through the crowds of people we just evacuated to find out if one of them is some kind of illusion-casting uh... okay. Everyone's leaving." She raises a hand to Shadowlite and Vicky, and gives them a wave. "You guys get on out of here and I'll go... I'll just..." she points in the direction of the outside of the mall. "Do the same thing. I'm not wasting the rest of the day talking to the cops either."

Leaning back casually against thin air as if it was a comfy sofa, Stardust starts to drift upwards. She stretches her arms and yawns, then folds her hands behind her head a headrest as she drifts up to exit through Magneto's broken skylight.

Singing.

"~Bustin' makes me feeeel good!~"

Magneto has posed:
     Outside the mall a helicopter flies into view hovering in place. "Have no need to fear, Warmachine is here." Spoken with a full confidence as he hovers over the mall. He looks down over the side for any signs of people in need of assistance ready to swoop down and provide areal support. There's a pause as he see's something coming towards him.

     Leaning forward from his seat he lifts up his sunglasses trying to get an idea of what it is. "The hell is that?" Is all he manages to say before Magneto comes crashing up out of the skylight of the mall speeding right up into the bottom of his helicopter glancing off the side of it. The impact causes his helicopter to go wild drifting off to one side as he struggles to regain control. "Hey watch it buddy, share the sky!" He shouts out as he partially panics managing to regain control seconds before he would have impacted into the mall. "Damn student fliers." Muttered as he resumes his search.

Stardust has posed:
Stardust drifts up just yards away lurching helicopter, still slouched lazily, as recovers from the collision with Magneto. She snaps a sloppy salute to Warmachine in the cockpit. "Hey, nice going, hotshot. Get a bit more practice and you might be able to hit the building next time!" she yells after him, before turning in the air and making her way back towards Titans Tower.

"Damn student fliers," she mutters to herself.