7755/Sentinels: Mall held Hostage

Sentinels: Mall held Hostage
Date of Scene:	06 June 2019
Location:	Mall - Salem Center
Synopsis:	A mutant goes berserk at the mall, causing Sentinel and vigilante reactions.
Cast of Characters:	Bastion, Spider-Man, Mon-El, Blue Marvel, Phoenix, Storm
Tinyplot:	Sentinels

---

Bastion has posed:
The breaking news report has made sudden headlines, loud and clear.

As of 9:20pm this evening, a mutant with some kind of explosive powers has taken the Salem Center Mall hostage! Video footage obtained from persons inside the mall reveal that there are multiple wounded, others possibly dead, within the mall. The individual is said to be a young female in jeans and a white jacket, with long black hair.

Authorities urge everyone to stay clear of the Salem Center; the local Cineplex and businesses are on lockdown!

Videos shown on the news are of helicopter footage, with sweeping lights over the Salem Center, with emergency personnel running about on the ground, and barriers set up as the response attempts to protect people. Further videos follow, from recordings inside the mall: a quick, shakey-cam shot of a shrieking woman in white and jeans, and multiple victims around her, covered in blood, with blurrs over their heads to mask the injuries there: but maybe their heads exploded...

The mayor has called for Sentinel use; a Sentinel group is expected to arrive quickly.

The mall itself, for those that are arriving on the scene, is terrifying. Shrieks make the whole of the facility vibrate: alien and inhuman, they are.

Spider-Man has posed:
Spider-Man was just doing Spider-Man things when the call came across the police scanner he had linked into his phone and fed into his mask by an earbud. Amidst the crowds of New York City, the webslinger lands near a storefront to watch the news broadcast on one of the display television banks showing the helicopter footage and shakey cam images of injured laying strown about. "...."

A pair of lines fire in mid run and carry the costume hero up over the buildings in the direction of Salem Center. Building up speed as he goes, until he lands upon a street lamp in a low crouch behind the police baracade that has to have been set up to keep civilians back from the horror show. There's no witty commentary from the usually robust wallcrawler who's looking over the exterior trying to find an out of the way location to enter.

"Nothing to it but to do it." He tells himself and leaps up to swing towards the roof of the Mall, against authorities recommendation because he's a rebel! "Sentinels on the way.. This is going to get out of hand fast."

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar was probably headed toward the scene of the violence even before the headlines appeared, having likely heard the commotion from afar. As soon as he was aware, he was off like a speeding bullet through the sky toward Salem Mall in Westchester, arriving there in no time and bursting through a sky window into the building. Who cares about doors when lives are at stake??

    Immediately, he starts scanning the area with his enchanced vision, looking for the perpetrator and/or anyone who appears in immediate danger so that he can quickly avert it.

Blue Marvel has posed:
Adam sits at his kitchen island reading over the papers from LexCorp. The stack is thick as a book and filled with dense legalese. He looks up when CNN cuts to coverage of the crisis at the mall and drums his fingers on the table.

"Those things are a menace," he mutters to himself about the Sentinels.

A moment later, Adam is changed into his Blue Marvel outfit and blasting away from his balcony into the night. He does not move fast enough to break windows, but still leaves a strong wind behind him. He drops down and lands slowly just outside the command post for the NYPD response to the situation and walks up to the officers.

"Blue Marvel," he introduces himself. "How can I help?"

Phoenix has posed:
Salem Center Mall, as luck would have it, was rather close for members of the X-Men to answer the call. Just so happens that Ororo and Jean we're having a nice cup of tea, which turned into an altogether more serious evening.

Take one gadget that hopefully prevents Sentinels from knowing they are mutants, take another to protect them from the Sentinel's nullifying field, virtue of having geniuses like Kitty Pryde and Forge, and out they go.

Through the air makes the most sense, Ororo carried by the wind itself, while Jean flies by her side with her telekinesis.

Both are in costume, but are only revealed when they're just about there, courtesy of Jean's telepathy.

"So...taking a mall hostage, not too smart, I guess we're dealing with a deeply distressed mutant?" Jean takes a wager with Ororo, looking down at the mall, "let's see if we can resolve this before Sentinels make it into a warzone."

Storm has posed:
Ororo's grimacing several hundred yards away, and by the time they're close enough to hear the clanging din and explosive percussion of the screams, she's clutching her head. "Goddess, that is a *noise*," she gasps. Ororo flutters once in flight and there's a flickering of air around her ears as she walls off her ears with near-solid concentration of air.

"It's quite loud, Jean," Ororo warns her friend. She stabilizes her flight path, a flickering vision of black and gold with her mohawk'd hair worn unconstrained and a little over-fluffed from the humidity in the air. Sky-blue eyes go cloudy and a low front of fog starts to encircle the mall's perimeter-- enough to deter any but suicidally reckless reporters. Or, cops who don't play by the rules.

Bastion has posed:
From the south, two massive Sentinels are in flight. They are huge: hard to miss, for sure, as they blaze in towards the facility. Another one appears to be coming from a different direction, roughly southeast. It is moving faster than the other two, or had more momentum, and will probably reach the facility first, if nothing else changes.

Emergency crews and rows of fire trucks and ambulances are being set up, even despite the horrible wails coming from what feels like the very fabric of the mall. It's like the Cineplex's horror movie track just went into insane decibels.

A group of police is clearly getting ready to attempt to breach the department store on the west end of the mall area: they are preparing their gear and gathering around to communicate about what their plan of action is.

The roof Spider-Man is investigating is empty entirely, but he'll find himself lit up with a spotlight as the helicopter above pans over him directly. Which means, Mon-El will probably see Spidey, as well as the huge mess all over the place inside. The perpetrator isn't immediately obvious, but the victims make it hard to tell what is what. Some are injured, others screaming. "Help me," sobs someone below Mon-El. Not that it's easy to hear, the shrieking sounds will make just about any conversation impossible inside the mall.

Blue Marvel does approach the officers, but they clearly don't really hear him. The noise is crazy. "Stand down vigilantes!! Sentinels are coming! Give way to the proper authorities!" attempts an official on a microphone. Mostly it gets drowned out.

Blue Marvel has posed:
Adam frowns at the sheer noise level, feeling it reverberate in his head.

"That is awful," he says to himself. He closes his eyes in concentration for a moment. The air shimmers around him and then there is a brief rush of wind. He channels negative energy through himself and out in a massive soundwave at the exact inverted frequency of the shrieking in the building. He ramps it up steadily creating a larger and larger zone of interference in the sound until he judges it reaches at least past the far side of the mall.

Adam walks closer to the command group. "Try that again, we can all hear now."

Phoenix has posed:
<<Good thing we have telepathy to communicate,>> Jean thinks over to Ororo, which is much more likely to be heard over all the noise that would impede on verbal communication. Jean closes her eyes as she looks in the direction of the mall, even as Ororo starts to cover its perimeter with fog, before she adds <<a young mutant, can't control her powers...would be so much simpler without loads of security and Sentinels inbound. We need to get face to face, I'm worried reaching her telepathically will freak her out further.>>

Storm has posed:
Ororo draws up and hovers in the air, a firm current of wind holding her aloft and setting her cape to whipping in her wake. << Secure the child first,>> Ororo projects to Jean. << Perhaps you can use the PA system to contact her? But haste is needed here; don't take too long to make contact. >>

She eyes the approaching Sentinels, then turns her face skywards. Eyes go completely white, and thunder crackles ominously overhead. << I'm going to try and confound their approach. I'll hold cover as long as I can,>> Ororo promises Jean. << See if there are any allies on the ground who can help as well. >>

Thunder cracks and *BOOMS* overhead and rain starts sluicing down in great sheets to try suppress the fires. Lightning crackles overhead, adding EM interference to the area around the mall that's being rapidly subsumed in dense fog and heavy, impossibly low clouds.

Mon-El has posed:
    Argh, the screaming is definitely painful, especially for someone who can hear as well as Lar. He tries to tune some of it out, and use it to hone in on the source. It has to be coming from somewhere in here, right? As he moves in whatever direction it's coming from, he also briefly examines victims, to see what kinds of injuries they have suffered, hoping to at least get an idea of what he might be up against. Hopefully the authorities can help tend to the wounded soon...

Spider-Man has posed:
Spidey rolls up to his feet out of a high arc swing and darts inside the spotlight towards the big windows that usually lead down into the center of the mall. When his proximity also lights up the interior enough for him to see the chaos, something in his gut turns enough that he nearly vomits. Those blurrs were for viewing safety, seeing someone's head basically removed is a thing that never, ever goes away. "No... why.."

Beneath his mask there's a deep frown growing, glancing up and over his shoulder at the helicopters which are becoming more difficult to see now that the sky is rolling in its own fog screen.. Still no wittiness from the usually talkative vigilante.

A lot of bad is about to fall on this Mall. Sentinels will not make this situation any easier.

There's no way he can do this subtle, not with the spotlights, so he doesn't even try. Once he's yanked open a window unit with a massive grunt, the tiny costumed hero jumps right down into it and lands in a low crouch. An obvious target to someone who might be scared and possibly out of control. "Heeey... Uh.." Hands up like his palms can deflect negativity as he spins in a circle trying to calm some of the frightened hostages, ".. Can we talk about this before the sentinels get here?"

Phoenix has posed:
Jean nods at Ororo and tries to use her distraction to swoop down, to ground level, taking a quick survey of the people about, trying to find either an officer who could be reasoned with or a fellow superhero. If she fails to locate amicable ones, she'll proceeds to attempt and fly into the mall under cover of Ororo's distraction.

Bastion has posed:
They don't seem like hostages, in the sense that they don't have someone standing over them ordering them to stay down. They seem to just be entirely disoriented, laying here and there. They stare at Spider-Man, non-reponsive. One of them points at his ears a little bit, before sort of easing back onto the floor. They are victims, more than they are hostages. Yes, they are afraid, but they act a great deal simply like they are injured.

The haunting screaming busts up and down out of the range that Blue Marvel has attempted to mute; it doesn't stay all in one pitch, which makes it challenging to entirely stop without a lot of constant attention. The fact that the waves of sound are echoing all over is part of the reason for it being difficult, and the sound emitted to try to balance the screams will do it's own style of damage. Including more disorientation from the victims.

--

And then, the first Sentinel arrives, surging forward through the growing rain, and landing in the parking area. It doesn't attack, just lands. It isn't alone, a smaller figure is with it, possibly having gotten a ride, but it is hard to see in the insane fog that Storm is generating.

The mental search will reveal that the source of the original sound is among a very large group of people in the food court.

Storm has posed:
Ororo is not blind. She sees all. Hears all. With the storm surging around her she's connected to the fabric of the world itself, wrapped in a dense concealing layer of obscuring fog and a near-solid wall of wind.

<< Jean, Sentinel on the ground. I cannot strike with lightning, there are too many civilians nearby. >> She focuses her thoughts to relay that tactical information to her friend. Fortunately, the X-teams are well practiced at this sort of linkage. Ororo works as Jean's eyes, freeing her up to move with more certitude.

She turns her face to the two Sentinels on approach and raises a palm in their direction. There's a surge of atmospheric pressure as a thermal eddy abruptly whips up under the flying Sentinels, to deflect their course. To knock them into the denser and water-rich clouds overhead that crackle with heavy ionization and the imminent threat of lightning strikes.

Mon-El has posed:
    Hmm, it seems the victims are not so much injured as they are disoriented by the noise. Lar continues to follow it, flying past dozens of shopfronts and booths at a dizzying speed, although not anywhere near his top speed of course--not in here.

    He arrives in the food court and spots the gathering of people where the source seems to be coming from. The Daxamite approaches it from above, scanning it in search of someone who looks like the woman seen in the news videos.

Blue Marvel has posed:
Adam sighs and lets his interference dissipate. He raises a hand to one of the officials to reassure them that he will stay put.

The sound is still aggravating though. There is another shimmer and all sound coming within a foot of him is muted to tolerable levels.

Adam crosses his arms and watches the Sentinel drop down and land in the parking lot. The second figure is curious and he looks intentely at it.

Spider-Man has posed:
Jean finds one mind amongst the gathered wounded that seems, if not willing, at least amiable. Peter Parker is down there, doing his best to get information from terrified people who are having trouble hearing him... and he them. He points at his own ear when the other guy points at his and shakes his head, "I can't hear you, it's loud.. and it's not loud." It's weird.

The webslinger moves through the mall, peeking around corners, generally just following a path that he hopes it TOWARDS the source and not away from it. Confident, at least, that he's not going to vomit at some of the injuries and mostly aware of the physics at play with splatter patterns and burn marks that he's going in the right direction.

Also, for now, unaware that the Sentinels are here.

"Hey, if anyone can hear me, I'm not a cop.. or a sentinel... or a real spider. I can only imagine how scared you have to be.. but it will get worse if you don't let me help you." Humor eases his nerves most of the time, it makes pleading with an unknown force easier. "There are people here who WILL help you."

"Just... Help me, help you, help them, help you.." That's not confusing.

Phoenix has posed:
<<Heading for the food court, 'Ro, that's where she is...how are things outside?" Jean asks as she locks on the food court and flies there as fast as she can manage, trying to send an empathic wave of relaxation to the area. Not so much a forceful attempt, as an open invitation for people to react cooler than they normally would.

Jean is pleased to find one Peter Parker is on the scene, he's a good guy, so whatever he'll do it won't be with intention to harm. The closer she gets to the food court, she starts to call out, "it's okay...there's nothing to fear," a blatant lie with Sentinels outside, "I'm here to help if you'd only allow it..." another lie. This needs resolution with the Sentinels present, but asking for permission is always nicer.

<<That can't be good>> she replies to Ororo.

Bastion has posed:
The young woman on the images of the news was a dark-haired female with a white jacket on. The white jacket is laying on a counter of the pizza food court station, and there are a number of women present. Still, once the muting stops, the sound source can be found without too much difficulty: she's hiding back there, among about four other people that are unconscious from the blasts of sound. It's coming off her in waves, disruptive and disorienting, particularly to those with sharp senses. At close range, the energy is very hard to bear: as the unconscious people prove.

Outside, the Sentinel stands guard at first, then booms loudly, in it's robotic way: "CEASE ALL ACTION, OR YOU WILL BE TAKEN INTO CUSTODY."

The human-sized person with the sentinel has approached the police near Adam, gesturing back some at the Sentinel, but having a hard time communicating with the noise level. He looks like military; which would make sense escorting the Sentinels.

Spider-man finds no resistance with the people he's trying to help. One of them points Spider-man towards the food court, and tries to ask him where they should go. Where is safe?

Ororo's storm has blown the hell out of the two airborne sentinels. They are trying to make sense of the storm, and are entirely struggling, unable to descend.

Blue Marvel has posed:
Out of long, old habit, Adam nods at the military officer. His lips are pursed. He watches the storm that appeared from nowhere, the Sentinel giving its pointless warning into the sonic abyss, the tactical teams.

"Government never changes," he mutters to himself. He walks over toward the police and the military officer and extends the field toning down the volume to encompass the group so they can at least hear each other. Once they finish conferring, if the military officer looks in his direction, Adam holds out a hand.

"Former Marines, sir. Blue Marvel. I'll stay out of the way," he assures him.

Storm has posed:
<< Managed, >> Ororo replies. Her tone is tense with focus-- as much trying to keep the Sentinels at bay as to keep the relatively localized storm from turning into a tropical hurricane. Her palm raises to drive the Sentinels high, and then she clenches a fist in the air. She speaks, and the *storm* around her seethes with her voice.

TAKE COVER.

Everyone in the *borough* might hear that voice, and then the clouds start to freeze. Crystallize, even, using the most patient of all elements: water. Secondary lightning strikes down at a few taller towers around them, fortunately largely driven harmlessly into the rods established for that purpose. Ororo's focus, for the moment, is on the airborne Sentinels, as she hammers them with high humidity, flash freezing, and heavy ionization over and over again. Worming ice into every drive panel and air flap and exhaust port, to seal in heat and crack that armor.

Phoenix has posed:
"Listen...I know what it's like," Jean says as she lands on her feet and walks the rest of the way to the pile of knocked out people the woman is hiding among. "It's scary, it's happening, and it feels like you're sinking into a black hole and losing yourself...but that's just the fear freezing your mind." Jean tries to explain, extending her hands forward, "would you allow me to help you? A helping hand goes a long way when you're just starting..."

<<Found the woman in the food court, poor thing's frightened, trying to hide...I'll see if I can help her calm down without forcing it on her,>> Jean reports to Ororo, <<perfect. Always feels best when I know you got my back, don't tell Scott.>>

Spider-Man has posed:
Spider-Man crouches down to reassure some of the more vocal injured, "Stay down for now.. Police are waiting to enter and there are emergency vehicles ready for all the wounded." Most of that he knows is true, some of it? Iffy. "Hey.." Pointing out several less injured, waving them over, "Can you help get some of the more wounded into..." Looking around the Mall with a turn of his head, ultimately deciding on a clothing store. "Right in there. Use some of the clothes on the rack to stop the bleeding? I need to the food court.. I skipped breakfast." Immediately regretting the humor in this moment, "Sorry.. just stay down and be careful. I'll be back."

He can get to the food court relatively easily with his webs, landing near the entrance atop a wobbly table when the sound waves hit him. Both hands come up to cover his ears, "Okay, I need you to take your cellphone away from the radio." So much nicer when everything was super quiet. Spidey flips from his perch closer the source of that ungodly painful sound, but it's screwing with his equillibrium and he nearly tumbles off the chair like some common noob. Good thing there's a teleapth because the Spider is crashing to the floor, "Everything hurts." Clutching his ears.

Mon-El has posed:
    It doesn't take Lar long to find the woman causing all of this, hiding in a pizza restaurant. The soundwaves are nauseating, but it's a good thing he has a lot of practice tuning out certain sounds while focusing in on others--it's something you kind of -need- to be able to do when you can hear a paramecium flipping its cilia from a mile away. Still, it takes him a few seconds to adjust.

    He notices Jean approaching, but she doesn't seem to have done anything yet other than saying stuff so he just tries to fly at the woman, grab her, and attempt to get her safely away from all these people. Safely as in not smashing her through walls or windows.

Bastion has posed:
The military guy looks at Adam with a thoughtful stare, but doesn't treat him badly, at all. "I need your help getting the vigilantes out of there, so that we can stop the mutant without any force, and without harming any innocents any further than they already are," he says. "This Sentinel won't use lethal force. You have my word. We need to get the civilians to medical care as soon as we can." He diverts from Adam to the police, talking to them in an authoritative way, attempting to organize the medical staff, mostly.

The Sentinel begins to walk into the front zone of the mall, scanning over the structure, while police begin to uncomfortably move near the huge feet. It's hard to accept the thing is on their side: some are braver about it than others.

Inside, Spider-Man is having good success with the people, and some start to help others, following his very heroic example. They use the clothes on the rack and everything. It's very heartwarming, except he doesn't linger to see them do it.

In the food court, the young woman, unable or unwilling to stop the flux of awful sonics and energy output, orients in fear towards Jean at first. She does start to stand up, guilty and humiliated, staring at Jean.... and then suddenly she's grabbed by Mon-El, and is being taken like a streak out of the building at a speed that she didn't expect. The wailing goes from sort of horrible into panic mode, making it VERY apparent where she is. However, her panic is making her start to self-destruct in Mon-El's arms: her own power is killing her.

The sentinels in the sky are being bashed, torn apart: they are Ororo's playthings, up there; hopefully the pieces of them won't kill anyone when they fall.

Blue Marvel has posed:
"Yes, sir," Adam says with a nod.

He moves away from the command group and then blurs into motion. Everyone seems to slow down. He makes it into the food court in time to see Lar going up and out with the screaming girl. Adam has no idea who Jean is but sees she is clearly not one of the victims. He extends the sonic wall around her.

"Time to go, the Sentinel and the police are coming in..." he shoots a concerned look up where Lar went especially as the tone of the noise changes. Then there is a blur and Adam is gone.

He blurs into position near Peter next and extends the sound blocker around them. "The Sentinel and police are coming and they want you out. I can get the wounded clear," he says to Peter. "Nice work," he says almost as an after-thought, seeing people helping each other the way Spiderman directed them.

Storm has posed:
<< Buy me new shoes, and I'll know you love me, >> Ororo responds to Jean mischeviously.

The relief Sentinels have been disabled, >> Ororo projects to Jean. She makes a sweeping gesture and heavy wind currents guide the debris down into a relatively empty part of the parking lot where the cordon's removed the civilians. She exhales a breath and the thunderstorm overhead starts to dissipate slightly as she stops bending nature iteself to her will and focuses on using the rainstorm to put out fires below, particularly those menacing the area around Spider-Man's ad hoc triage center.

A second wind drives those heavy raindrops squarely into the face of the advancing law enforcement officers, with enough force to sting. It's like being face to face with a leafblower, except the flurry flows from the Mall at ground level like a parking-lot sized fan.

<< I am attempting to slow the constabulary. There is a Sentinel on approach on foot, but there are people near it. I cannot safely engage. >> She winces in pain as the girl starts shrieking again, and tries to shake it off with a toss of her head.

<< Goddess above, Jean! Can you subdue her somehow? >> she requests, plaintively. << We may be past the point of diplomacy. >>

Phoenix has posed:
Jean smiles at the young woman, she can tell she is starting to reach her, that was good. Maybe she can even help the woman put a stop to the screaming without forcing it for her, but even as she opens her mouth to give instruction, a streak passes and the girl is not there. There are, of course, her paniced uncontrollable cires to serve as a beacon to find her. "Unbelievable..." Jean gasps, before Adam speaks to her, but she doesn't respond to him. She doesn't know who or what just Quicksilver'd their way in and snatched the woman, but it's not good.

<<I'll try, Ororo,>> Jean says to her teammate, but when she takes to the air, her actions are not ones that Jean would normally take. Eye glowing a searing white glow, she flies faster than usual after the screams, using her arms to direct her powers.

A fiery raptor-like talon materializes of thin air to grab Mon-El, while a TK force pulls the woman away from him. Once the woman is not within his reach, the fiery talon squeezes and then hurls the Daxamite harshly into the ground.

Not having much choice in the way of handling this, she speaks telepathically to the woman, <<I am someone who can help you, but I really need you to calm down, I'm not sure who that man was...but he won't harm you again, you must calm down, let me help you...>> she at least tries to help the woman, manipulating her with empathy to get her to calm trust her. Prefering that to shutting her down telepathically.

Spider-Man has posed:
Spidey's hand slaps against the top of the table when the source of the agonizing sound ellopse in the Daxamites arms like they're headed to vegas for a shotgun wedding. "Whoa.. that was not okay.. No means no.." Groaning, still trying to clear the ringing from his ears while testing his feet beneath him.

Then a ghost man appears beside him. "... Why am I even shocked anymore?" Both hands up in a shrug, glancing towards Jean, "I'm gonna go hold the Sentinel off for as long as I can without dying.." Another web, swinging back in the direction of the front of the mall to do something stupid.

"Please be friendly, please be friendly."

Mon-El has posed:
    Grife, seems like the whole not smashing through walls or windows thing was totally pointless because the woman's own out of control powers start killing her when she begins to panic. Er, whatever is happening. Lar isn't even sure why this is actually happening, for all he knows she's trying to knock him out or something. Most of his attention is focused on tuning out the awful noise though, as it has just increased in frequency and volume considerably. He stares at her. "Nononono...what are you doing?! Stop it, you're killing people!" Right, he's -so- good at this. This calming distressed people thing. He's starting to feel like this situation was probably best left up to other people whose powers would actually be -useful- in this situation beyond simply killing the woman. Unfortunately, punching is not always a solution to everything...But what can he do now that he's already grabbed her and flown away? He slows down, uncertain of what to do.

    And that when he's suddenly grabbed by a telekinetic force seemingly out of nowhere that wrenches the woman from his grasp and throws him to the ground, causing a massive crater in the middle of the street. Theft alarms from parked vehicles all start wailing, and street lamps groan as the fall down on top of them.

    For whatever reason, Mon-El doesn't get up, at least not for a while. Maybe because he honestly -deserved- that one.

Bastion has posed:
A sudden lancing beam pulses out across the mall sky, aimed directly, in a series of pulsing shots, for where the mutant was being taken. And as she stops in the air, a new volley of shots. They are not lethal, but still, strong impact blasts.

It's from the vicinity of the Sentinel, though the stormy sky and fog and blasting rain that's harming the vision of the police, firemen, and medical staff may make it hard to be certain. The sleet is stopping the rescue teams from going inside the mall: they are held up as much as the police are. A few people had managed to make it outside, victims from within, but they crouch in the storm, starting to back up back inside the mall out of the rain.

In the air, the woman is a sitting duck for those sentinel blasts, unless Jean defends her. In terror and panic, she reaches out towards Jean. All of her thoughts are of her family, how she'll humiliate them, now that everyone will know she's a mutant. Her thoughts are that she can't live this down, having harmed those people. And her vibration intensifies, as she starts to give in to her extreme horror: at herself, at what she's done....

Blue Marvel has posed:
Adam zips between the very worst of the casualties. It takes some concentration but subatomic manipulation puts a stop life-threatening bleeding. He reassures each that they are going to be okay and encourages people to work their way to the incoming emergency services at the mall entrance. He picks up one of the injured and blurs to the mall entrance, where he sees how much trouble everyone is having in the storm.

Adam sighs. He gently puts the woman in his arms down and assures her she is going to be okay. Then he steps outside. He judges distances for a moment then flies up to about 15 feet. A shimmering sort of non-light appears in a tunnel like form running from the mall entrance back toward the emergency vehicles, sheltering the emergency services people and creating a safe path. The storm winds and rain hit the shimmering tunnel and cause flares of reactions with the negative energy field.

"Do /not/ touch the walls!" Adam shouts to the emergency crews.

Storm has posed:
Ororo grimaces and makes a pushing motion at the Sentinel on the ground, and the people around it. The rain intensifies until any possible visual acquisition is utterly washed out. It's a *deluge*, almost biblical, and contained to a three-block radius.

<< Thank the Goddess we're by the coast. Plenty of moisture for me to pull, >> Ororo tells Jean. << I will cover our retreat, but I think it's time we *got gone*. >>

Phoenix has posed:
<<Ororo...thick fog, now!>> Jean more demands than requests, as she forms a TK shield around the woman. Maybe if Storm can get them sufficent cover, they can escape somewhere distinctly less Sentinel infested to actually talk to the woman.

But as luck would have, she seems to be losing it, entirely. <<I'm sorry lady, but I don't have much of a choice,>> Jean tries to telepathically get the woman to fall asleep. Trying to work an illusion that she's so tired, she just has to drop everything else.

Spider-Man has posed:
Spidey swings right out the open front doors into the rain and is immediately soaked, even before he's landed infront of one of the sentinels. It's one of those really cool spider-man poses too. Pete kind of wishes he'd set up a camera, but it wouldn't have been able to pierce the fog anyways, so it's just as well. "Don't shoot me, I'm one of the good ones!" Waving both hands up at the monstrously big metal guy. "I literally only have ONE-" Holding up one finger, "-Question... who chose your color pallot? Was it an intentional decision to do drab on more drab or was it a happy accident?"

Waving his other hand at the people coming outside for them to either go back in or go WAY around him and the machine. "I would have done something more stylish myself. You guys would look absolutely killer, buh dun tiss, with big metal bow-ties."

Bastion has posed:
The woman, her long streamers of black hair soaked, her body beaten up and torn from her own powers, shows zero resistance. She konks right out as Jean applies mental force: she didn't shield. She wanted to be hit.

She gets more than that, though. The shot from the ground sentinel lances up to impact the pair that seemed to have forgotten all about the Sentinel on the ground that was shooting directly at them.

Sorry Spidey, the Sentinel entirely ignored you and your quips.

The military guy didn't; he crosses near Spider-Man, staring up as if he hoped to see something through the biting rain. The Sentinel drops its arm, as the targets above, struck with whatever horror the sentinel unleashed to block their powers, start to plummet...

Blue Marvel has posed:
Adam cannot really see what the Sentinel is doing or what happened. The driving rain lashing against the negative energy tunnel that shields the first responders creates a blazing glow along the outside of the tunnel as it is vapourized.

Under cover now the first responders can move into and out of the mall unimpeded. They rush in and are soon able to start ferrying the injured and herding the mobile down the tunnel into the parking lot where triage is set up.

Thankfully everyone globs onto the fact the shimmering energy wall with fire on the outside is a bad thing to touch and nobody loses body-parts.

Storm has posed:
<< Jean! >> Ororo hesitates. Swooping in to catch the women is her first instinct, but she's earned her chops with the X-teams for a decade now. It'd put her squarely in the line of sight of the Sentinel below, and then there'd be possibly *three* of them falling.

<< I swear before the Goddess, Forge, if these bracelets are broken ... >>

The wind and driving rain abruptly stops and then the pressure differential in the air flexes as if everyone were in a plane that dropped a thousand feet. The water, wind, storm, all of it is sucked into a tight, frenzied cyclone of dense rainwater and black clouds. It centers itself on the Mall and funnels upwards like a spire to catch Jean and the strange mutant.

The tornado swallows them, arcs upwards, then-- absurdly, impossibly -- it loops back on itself and travels laterally out to sea, spitting all that pent up energy back out over the ocean.

When the weather clears, it's as if the storm never came, and Jean, Ororo, and the banshee-like woman are gone.

Spider-Man has posed:
Spidey side taps the approaching army fella with the back of his knuckles real friendly like. As if they're just old chums standing in the parking lot of the mall waiting for his mom to pick them up after a day at the arcade, "Can you believe the cheek of this guy?" Pointing up at the Sentinel what ignored him. "Don't suppose you could kindly tell this big violent toaster to knock it off before it vaporizes them?" Side long to Military guy.

"See? They're all gone." Motioning around at the storm clearing. That's just uncomfortable how easily Ororo was able to disappear everyone, "Now, we have all those people over there who really need medical attention." Pointing at the Mall, "More inside the Gap store. I'm kind of excited to see how they used trendy clothes to make makeshift bandages, aren't you?"

Bastion has posed:
The emergency responders are finally indeed able to do their jobs. The truth, at least of the start of the evacuation, shows that the situation looked worse than it is: lots of people are unconscious, many of them with hearing problems and bloody noses and similar problems, but the death toll is lower than it first looked: most everyone is alive, except for a few.

The military official looking guy studies Spider-Man for a strong moment, as if ignoring the rain to give Spider-Man a judging stare, but he nods agreement. The Sentinel, as if magically overhearing Spider-man's request, lowers its arm, and simply appears to stand guard.

"They aren't vaporized, that weapon does not vaporize," he answers Spider-Man. "Excuse me." He moves back towards the police, to assist with their effort.

The sentinel, having clearly saved the day as best mutant-stopping MVP that blocked the mutant from killing herself, simply looks on, looming, and dormant. For now.

Blue Marvel has posed:
Once the weather just... stops... Adam drops the negative energy barrier. He lands and gets to work helping on the ground, whether it's guiding people to the triage area, stopping critical bleeding or getting out of the way. He stays until things settle and then walks back to the officer.

"Well sir, that went a lot better than last time I was near one of these," he says, referring to the Sentinel. "Sorry about those ones," he says gesturing to the heap of parts Storm left behind. He shakes his head. "We really do more harm than good sometimes," he muses thoughtfully.

Spider-Man has posed:
Spidey waves after military guy, who is also ignoring him now, "Alright, maybe next time with the Gap thing.." Pointing back at the Mall, where he will be of little assistance now. "Well that was eventful." To himself, another web line after a leap and he's swinging away from this, all of this. "I'm really glad the Sentinel didn't shoot me..." Also to himself, "And I hope that girl is okay. Poor thing. Killing all those people like that, never gonna have another restful nights sleep."