7965/Sentinels: Vigil

Sentinels: Vigil
Date of Scene:	19 June 2019
Location:	Protest outside Police Headquarters, NYC
Synopsis:	Storm, Rogue, Kitty and Stoneclaw leap into action when Sentinels attack an anti-Sentinel vigil.
Thanks to:	Vision, GM
Cast of Characters:	Vision, Storm, Rogue, Shadowcat, Colt Cassidy
Tinyplot:	Sentinels

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Vision has posed:
The tweets and Facebook and other social media posts had been flying around for a couple of days. After the Bushwick Sentinel Incident and the attack at Port Newark, people were upset and demanding answers. #nomoresentinels spread even faster after the incidents than it had when Janet van Dyne and an array of celebrities started using it weeks ago.

Much of the movement coalesced around blaming the NYPD for using Sentinels against citizens, despite denials from the department. Word spread quickly and tonight there is a candlelight vigil and protest outside the main NYPD headquarters building. Thousands of people have shown up, mutants, humans, from all walks of life. After initial attempts to ask people along, NYPD brass ordered their officers to cordon the area off from vehicle traffic and do nothing more than deal with violence. The only visible police presence is some officers mounted on horses, and the officers manning the checkpoints.

Right out front of the building, people are taking turns telling stories about people injured or killed by Sentinels over a PA system that someone set up. People are unhappy but it's not an angry mob. People are standing or sitting, there are candles, and some food trucks have decided it is worth getting fined to cash in on the crowds. The news media are there of course, as well.

A keen eye will see NYPD snipers set up on the roofs of several buildings with a view of the crowd. But they are facing away from the crowds and scanning the skies.

Storm has posed:
Some agencies go undercover with electronic surveillance in passenger vans. Others use garbage trucks so they can ferret out the underworld of monsters supernatural spookies.

The Westchester Crowd has the Bubble Tea Truck, a converted old school bus that serves ... well, bubble tea.

It works surprisingly well and in fact it's a popular tool for students trying to make a few extra dollars for fun and games during their downtime. Drive it to a ball game or into the city for a weekend, sell some teas, make some money. It's actually ... quite profitable!

And it gives Ororo a chance to indulge her sweet tooth with one of her rare, *rare* departures from a staunch position on keeping teas unadulterated.

"You know, if nothing else, we might clear a thousand dollars today," Ororo says, counting the till. She's dressed casually, in jeans, wedge heels, and a babydoll tee that proclaims 'BEP Final Tour' under bold colored blocks. "And not to tempt fate, but it seems like we might have dodged a bullet here in terms of violent activity."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is in the tea truck. With long gloves on, a black tshirt, black jeans and a white apron on over it all. She's got her hair tied back into a bun atop the crown of her head and is wearing a little pretty paper hat, her white bangs are braided into two strands that wrap around under the edges of the hat mostly hiding them all together.

"This is our best plan ever, by the by." Rogue says, standing while holding onto a side panel in the vehicle. She turns and walks over to the side counter where hand out the drinks and leans over it, propping herself up on her elbows and sticking her legs out behind her.

"This is my 'come buy stuff from us' pose." Rogue quietly announces then, glancing over to the others. "What do ya think?"

Needless to say this event has some serious undertones to it, and they're well aware of that... here to help if things go south, Rogue's got a bag tucked away inside the truck with some gear just in case.

Shadowcat has posed:
It being a place that will have a lot of mutants, Kitty will have mentioned to Colt that it might be a place he could make a visit to public in his new body and find a lot of support. Though she'll have left that up to him if he'd like to come along and help them man the tea truck.

Kitty has on her X-man uniform under her clothing, wearing a pair of jeans and a button up shirt overtop of it. Her Star of David necklace hangs about her neck, the dangling religious symbol visible as she works the truck. "Good bye Stark Industries. Hello full-time tea truck!" Kitty muses as she passes behind Ororo, touching the woman's shoulder as she moves over to pour a cup of a freshly steeped brew into a cup for a customer.

Kitty leans down to the window, passing it out to the already paid for customer. "There you go. Thank you and have a peaceful evening," she tells him. While she's leaning down and able to see out the windows better, Kitty glances over at the protest, and then up at the snipers on the roofs. "More worried about protecting the protestors from you know what than worried about the protestors causing harm," she says. "What a nice change."

Colt Cassidy has posed:
Colt was actually excited to get out of the school, and not have to use an image inducer. A lot of the folks that were gathered were either mutants themselves or were supporters of mutants, so he could be himself and not have to worry.

He was helping as best he can in the back of the food truck. It's a bit of a tight squeeze but he's making it work. Plus this is the first time in his life he's ever actually gotten to drink a bubble tea and he thinks he's in love. They never had anything like this back in Blaine, that's for sure, "This stuff is good it's no wonder we're selling a lot." He looks at Kitty for a sec and then out at the crowd, "Kitty do you mind if I go take a look around? Stretch my legs so to speak."

Vision has posed:
People seem to need no encouragement to buy, but the fact a few guys order bubble tea from Rogue's chest suggests it is not hurting. There is a steady flow of people to the truck and the group gets a good look at the diversity of the crowd. Clearly a wide cross-section of New Yorkers are not happy about the Sentinels.

One guy with spiky red hair, dressed in skinny black jeans, red Converse shoes, a tight t-shirt for some band called Rusticate, and more face piercings than freckles has been back to the truck no less than five times. What he is doing with all that bubble tea is anybody's guess, but he does his level best to strike up conversation with Storm each time, holding up the line.

There is no small number of people with very obvious mutations. Some with animal features, odd colours of skin, bony protrusions. Even one poor man with truly disturbing rolls and billows of skin that make Akira look handsome. But each one of them tries to catch Colt's eye and nod.

A middle-aged woman in jeans and a t-shirt with a big red X over a sentinel silhouette is nearly crying over the PA as she tells the story of how her son was trampled and severly injured in the stampede at the Bushwick Incident.

Several NYPD officers start looking around, touching their earbuds or talking into the radios. The team in the truck see a couple of uniformed officers jogging toward the barricades set up about 20 feet down the street from the bubble tea truck. They start pulling the barricades out of the way. The officers on the roofs are searching the skies to the west. One young woman in an NYPD uniform runs out of the headquarters toward the woman using the PA. Half a dozen large mutants get in her way. The officer is yelling and pointing the microphone. The mutants have puffed up their chests and one is yelling back at her.

Storm has posed:
Ororo is a deft hand at handling people, exuding a sophistacated maturity and self-possession needed for such social dialogue. She is friendly and polite but every time the fellow comes back she engages with him just long enough to be sincerely polite but never long enough for him to distract her from work, or get an untoward impression of her level of interest.

Her blue eyes flicker to the activity and her brow furrows. The weather-bending mutant walks to the rear of the bus and looks out the window with folded arms. Her hair's down in plaits arcing across her scalp, fortunately, otherwise she'd be brushing the roof with her untamed white mane.

"Something is happening," she murmurs. Her voice is quiet and projects relaxed confidence. Alerting the others to keep their wits sharp but not launching into screaming paranoia just because of the motion.

Still. Ororo's instincts are good ones.

Rogue has posed:
Leaned over like she is, Rogue can spot things changing outside, the mood was never amazing, but its getting noticeably worse and as Colt is asking to go outside, Rogue is already on her way in that direction via the door at the back of the bus. "I can see." Rogue says to Storm as she passes by Kitty and reaches for her black duffle bag on her way to said door.

Its pushed open vy its metal handle and she drops out of the truck's back, her paper hat and apron are pulled off and her teeshirt rises up around her waistline exposing her trim stomach as she whips a leather jacket out of the bag and pulls it on around her shoulders. Her team-comm is placed inside her right ear while she walks with her head tilted, boots impacting lightly on the concrete while she goes, and her dark hair unraveling from atop her head to pool around her shoulders.

"On a walk." Rogue says into her comms, black clothes on beneath her brown leather bomber jacket, her green eyes scanning the crowd now.

Shadowcat has posed:
"Why thank you, we brew it fresh, and order the tea from a number of places. We have a genuine connoisseur with us," Kitty says to one man at his questions about their fare, and motioning towards Ororo as the aforementioned aficionado. She passes a cup over to the man and then pauses, spotting what is going on.

"Yes, looks like the police are getting agitated about something," she says. Kitty moves over to a bag and pulls out a few devices. She passes one to each person including Rogue before she leaves the bus. "In case of Sentinels. Will keep them from neutralizing your power," Kitty says. She slips her device into an inside pocket and turns it on.

She looks at Colt after she gives him the device. "We... like to come prepared," she tells him. "If there's trouble, help if you can but nothing wrong with just loading up the bus with people and getting them to safety," she tells him, touching the new student gently on the shoulder.

Colt Cassidy has posed:
Colt is admiring the fact that there's a lot of mutants who can't exactly blend in either, but they're also out here making the best of it. He returns nods and smiles, sipping at his bubble tea and trying to give free advertising.

He can sense the mood shift, though. Hard to miss, really. Then Kitty gives him a device. An anti-nullifier? He doesn't even know if his powers can BE shut off, but better safe than sorry, he thinks. So he turns it on and sticks it into the pocket of his jeans. He also makes his way back towards the bus. Better to be in the area where the teachers are just in case.

Vision has posed:
The NYPD officer up front seems to be finally getting through to the guys who stopped her. Their body postures relax considerably and then they start looking around nervously. The officer brushes past them and grabs the mic from the woman speaking without so much as a please.

"By order of the New York City Police Department, you are ordered to disperse," the officer says urgently into the microphone. The reaction from the crowd is immediate. They boo and jeer as she repeats her command.

"... disperse...... safety....." She can barely be heard above the crowd.

At first it sounds like a jetliner is approaching, but the sound gets louder and louder. The roar is incredibly loud. Then comes the wind, blowing straight down. Hats, paper and cups go flying in different directions. Three pairs of bright blue lights come down through the low cloud cover. The Sentinels break descend trailing grey wisps of cloud. Two touchdown to the west in the street, between a pair of four story buildings. The robots are 50 feet tall themselves, three storeys tall. They land back to back, one facing to the west (Sentinel 1) and the other facing the crowd to the east (Sentinel 2). A third Sentinel (Sentinel 3) lands in front of the tea truck. People scramble for cover and the wind is fierce. It lands facing north to the crowd.

"SURRENDER MUTANTS!" Sentinel 3 order in its booming voice.

There are cries of alarm, but not all of them are directly because of the terrifying robots. People throughout the crowd are doubling over in pain, shock and dismay. Many of those look disoriented.

The police the team saw taking down the barriers recover quickly from where they took cover when Sentinel 3 landed. The two of them start yelling at people to get back. The police on the roofs of the four storey buildings are bringing large, long barrelled guns to bear. They are not firing but they are clearly ready.

To the north, a NYPD chopper is flying in at top speed.

Storm has posed:
Ororo's of a practical mindset, and the first thing she does is shutter the bus windows to keep dust and debris from getting tossed into them. "Sentinels," she barks over the commset. Just so everyone knows what's happening. She shucks off her shirt and jeans, wriggling out of them to reveal a black bodysuit under it. A touch to the X-symbol on her left breastbone and the concealed uniform unfurls a cloak and descends to cover her feet and shoes as well, leaving only her face and her toned arms exposed. A black headband is placed on her brow, the effect more like a tiara than a mere hair accessory.

She digs the keyfob out of her jean pocket and chucks it underhand at Colt, flying past him down the steps of the bus. "Take the van, and get clear," Ororo orders him, in a tone that brooks no countermanding. Colt is /her/ responsibility, after all.

She doesn't wait for a reply, and twists a hand in the air. Wind whips up with stinging force to make eyes water at ground level, and give her some coverage to take to the air. The countering device is on one wrist and she takes to low flight, doding out of the Sentinel's line of sight, and activating the subtle electronic disruption devices that will make taking her picture difficult. "Rogue, I need those snipers neutralized," Ororo commands. "Kitty, stay on ground level. Try to disrupt the Sentinels if you can, but don't let them hurt you!"

The barometric pressure starts to shift uncomfortably and a freezing Nor'eastern rain abruptly appears from nowhere as Ororo summons the elements, putting a rainstorm overhead so she can tap into its power later.

Rogue has posed:
After taking the device from Kitty, Rogue has it flipped on inside her pocket, muttering to herself. "Spend all this time tryin' t'find ways t'shut my mutation off, here I am flippin' somethin' on that does the damned opposite..." Of course she forgets her comm is on as she mutters that too...

Once things start to hit the fan, Rogue stops walking toward the front of the crowd and she watches the Sentinels descend from the sky which causes her hair to whip about her shoulders and her eyelids to squint a bit in the atmospheric chaos that those monstrosities create.

She raises her right hand up to place it over her brow, shielding her eyes from the sunlight. "Great." She says then.

But its Storm's command that makes Rogue's gaze go up to the roofs, she spots the snipers pretty quickly and then nods her head, lowering her hand. "Not a problem. They might start shootin' at me after I get one or two'a those rifles away from them... experience has taught me that these folks ain't big fans'a people takin' their compensation rifles away."

Rogue's off the ground and in the sky, a bullet out of a gun herself, flying toward the first person she spots on the roof, aiming to go right past them and rip the gun out of their hands!

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty looks over to Colt and hands him an earbud. "Slide that into your ear, just talk normal and we're pick you up," she says. Darn this school is REALLY well equipped, aren't they?

Kitty reaches into a pocket and pulls out a domino mask, affixing it to her face. Her clothes just fall off of her. Not off, Through. She steps out of the pile, wearing her X-man uniform beneath. "Be safe Colt," she says and then darts out the back, not phasing yet.

She waves a hand towards the bus. "In here, the bus will get you out of here," she says to some of the panicking protestors. But Kitty - or we should call her Shadowcat now - doesn't wait to see if anyone listens. She runs over to get right in front of the Sentinel (3) that is right in front of the tea truck. She tries to get its attention as Kitty raises her arms up in the air that normal surrender position. "Ok! Ok, I'm surrendering!" she shouts up at the Sentinel. She even waves her arms, trying to get its attention on her, and not on anyone else, and ready to phase at the first sign of attack.

Colt Cassidy has posed:
In the span of a few minutes he's been given an anti-power nullifier, a comm earbud and a car. That's a lot of trust to hand a 17 year old. But Colt is ready for it just the same.

He turns the ear piece on and then gets up to the front of the bus, "Okay. No problem. It's just like dad's truck that you ran into the tree that one time." He says to himself, taking a deep breath before starting it up.

After the vehicle roars to life, as much as a refurbished bus can roar, he tries to drive through the hole in the barricade that the cops opened. Even though that means he's going to be driving towards one of the Sentinels. He presses hard on the accelerator and hopes the big steel monster doesn't just crush the bus.

Vision has posed:
People are yelling now, the crowd is restless and agitated. When the cold rain hits, that energy is given a kick. People start to scatter for shelter or away from the Sentinels. It is not a stampede, and there are thousands of people, but they are definitely starting to move.

".... calmly.... away...." continues the officer on the PA, now in the rain.

A couple of stunned looking people stumble toward the bus when told. They both look human, but are dazed.

Overwatch Team 2 does not see Rogue coming. She flashes past and grabs the gun, a .50 cal sniper rifle. The kind of thing you use to put holes in engine blocks. Behind her she can hear a pained scream. If she looks at the gun there is a finger falling out of the trigger guard.

Sentinel 2 picks up Rogue quickly. It raises a massive hand and fires a ruby red bolt of energy at her.

Sentinel 3 looks down at Kitty. It lifts on arm slightly. Metal tentacles shoot out of its wrist, one each toward Kitty, a fish looking guy and the poor hideous blob man.

The NYPD helicopter veers wildly when the sudden weather happens. It banks very sharply at speed and then some smoke starts coming out from under the main rotor.

Storm has posed:
Ororo stays out of sight for a few seconds while gathering her power. Everything Kitty and Rogue does buys her time, time to get those awesome forces of nature moving overhead like a juggernaut of purely elemental energy. Her eyes go completely white and she floats into view once again, surrounded by a wall of air at such incredible pressure it's almost a shield in and of itself. She lifts her hands and starts making carefully controlled gestures, driving wind into the faces of the snipers with precision and guiding the helicopter to a safe (if a little rough!) landing with a suddenl updraft of controlled thermals.

Ororo's a conductor and the world is her orchestra. Lightning crackles overhead as the thunderstorm grows in intensity. Eaasier to manipulate the thundering forces overhead than to try and create them out of nothing but dead air and swirling willpower.

She's driving out witnsses and trigger-happy cops all at once, clearing the area so the X-men can deal with the Sentinels more directly.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue catches the severed finger in her right hand, holding the rifle in her left. "Well, shit." She utters as she starts to turn in a hastey move that will bring her around and go back the way she came. The gun is smashed and the two havles are tossed off to the side behind the other officers on the roof, she flies back toward the one she just de-trigger-fingered and is about to move to pick them up before she catches whiff of danger with her 'Seventh Sense'.

This causes the southern belle to look over her shoulder as that Sentinel fires at her which makes her deactivate her power to let gravity take control of her, her arms spread out wide (finger cluched in her gloved hand protectively) as she tries to twirl and tumble out of the way of the shot be fired at her.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty is glad to see the Sentinel focus on her, but lets out a loud, "Crap!" as she sees there are extra tentacles going for the other mutants. Shadowcat turns and rushes towards them even as the tentacles are closing in. She grabs hold of both of them to phase the trio and then she sinks all three of them down into the ground.

There should be storm drains all over the place to handle the rainfall, so hopefully it isn't long for her to find a safe spot she can leave the two mutants off. "Apologies for the smell, just follow this until you find a ladder up to a manhole cover," she tells them. She'll wait to make sure they are ok with that and then she's heading forward, through the ground and angling for a spot that she should be able to surface next near the feet of Sentinel 3. She'll poke her head up to get a look before rising out of the ground fully.

Colt Cassidy has posed:
From down below, Colt has managed to get the bus around the Sentinel's leg and down the street. But he stops the bus after getting it around the corner. He can't run away. There's too many people in danger. He parks the bus, gets out and then runs back towards the fight.

"This is so stupid you idiot you're gonna get yourself killed!" He yells at himself, as he rushes towards Sentinel 3. Since it's attacking some of the mutants that were nice to him earlier, he can't just let it happen.

He jumps up as he gets near, hoping he gauged the range correctly as he jumps through the air and swings his obsidian claws at the tendril, trying to slice through it and free the fish man and blob man.

Vision has posed:
It takes a lot of focus and concentration, but the winds drive the crowd in the direction it was already going. People are picking up speed. Most were even too distracted to even notice the ruby bolt that lit up the underside of the clouds. Guiding the helicopter takes a lot of focus, not least because the pilot keeps trying to compensate. But Storm manages to guide it into a strut crunching landing on the NYPD rooftop helipad. The winds dance at the overwatch teams. But it is too much all in a very short time. They are not much affected.

The red bolt blasts just over Rogue's head as she drops down near the two officers from Overwatch Team 2. The injured one is craddling his hand and the other one gets between himself and Rogue and draws his gun. He yells something at her but it's lost in the wind.

Kitty dropa through the ground with the two mutants just in time. The tentacles strike concrete. There is a subway maintenance corridor nearby which is a relief. The blobby guy is weeping. The fishy person thanks Kitty profusely.

When Kitty pops her head back up she is just in time to see Colt slice through two tentacles.

Sentinel 3's last tentacle on the one hand grasps at Colt. It raises the other hand and fires a blast at Storm.

"SURRENDER MUTANTS!"

Sentinel 2 lowers its hand and tries a second shot at Rogue.

The other two overwatch teams open fire on the sentinels. their shots go off with huge cracks. One of Sentinel 2's optics is partly damaged. It responds by sending tentacles grabbing at the two officers. Sentinel 1 takes off and turns as it does, rising above Sentinel 2.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue sees the officer pull a handgun and it... doesn't really concern her. She just walks toward him and moves to grab onto him. When the Sentinel (2) fires at her, she shoots up into the air and carries the cop over the ledge of the building and down to the street level. She lands down beside a food vendor reaches in to grab an ice cooler inside it filled with gatorades. She tosses his severed finger into the ice and then stuffs the box into his hands. "Take this to the hospital, right now." She orders the cop before she shoots off into the sky again.

As she's shot at once more, she once more tries to dodge the laser blaster thing... Her goal is to disarm the other snipers and she's flying toward two more to do just that. But this time she lands between them and lets them look up at her before she reaches down to just grab the barrel of their guns and squeeze them shut.

Storm has posed:
Ororo clenches a hand in front of her as the Sentinel raises a palm. A vortex of wind and water compressed to incredible pressure flares in front of her and the red beam is diffused into a sullen sky-brightening scarlet flare.

She's already moving, using her considerable talents to ensure the rain and wind confuses and stymies the Sentinel thermal receptors. A big flashy move might be to fling lightning at the Sentinels, but she uses a more subtle gambit: condensation. Rapid humidity changes cause steel to bead and sweat with moisture, and she hammers the Sentinels with complicated gusts of ice and heat to force more and more of that moisture inside their armored frames. In a few seconds she can start tearing them apart with the most patient and powerful of elemental forces: ice itself.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty makes it above ground and sees that Colt has joined the fight. She doesn't give him any remonstration or complaints, merely moves to try to assist him against the Sentinel they are both fighting. Clear of the ground now Kitty runs for the Sentinel's foot, going intangible again to pass through its metal armor plating. Once inside she starts running through the electronics and rising upwards along the leg.

Sparks fly from circuitry and computer chips that she passes through, disrupting their electric fields. She climbs higher and higher, going from the leg into the central body. She begins running back and forth and up down to scramble the metal giant from the inside.

Colt Cassidy has posed:
Colt managed to actually accomplish what he wanted, striking the two cables through. Only to find himself get wrapped up in a third one that he missed, "Damnit!" He struggles against it, trying to find a way to dig his claws into it. But he can't seem to get enough space to slice through it, "Let me go you stupid robot!"

He leans down and tries to bite the cable with his teeth, trying to tear through it that way instead. These things are a menace and he knows they need to do something to stop them from hurting anybody. At least they haven't killed any of the mutants yet, "This was a peaceful thing until you showed up!" He then goes back to gnawing on the cable holding him.

Vision has posed:
"Holy shit! Put me down!" the officer yells as Rogue drags him off the rooftop. When she drops him on the ground he scrambles backward and glares daggers at her.

The other two Overwatch Teams are too focused on trying to deal with shooting in these winds to notice Rogue coming. The last sniper for the last team leaps to his feet when she crushes his gun.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?! We're trying to save these fucking people!" he yells, face damn near purple.

As much as she tried, Ororo's vortex absorbs the energy from the laser blast, but it is a /lot/ of energy. Superheated water and steam explode out of the vortex toward her in an expanding cone. Rain and wind batter at the Sentinels' faces. With all the rain, it is hard to tell what moisture on the outside of the Sentinels is from the rain and what is from the humidity changes.

Kitty climbs through Sentinel 3. As she does, the air becomes humid rapidly. Water slowly starts to accumulate on surfaces. By the time Kitty reaches the chest of the Sentinel, the air inside is heating rapidly and there is significant vibration. Some kind of junction panel has multiple lights on it flashing red urgently. Meanwhile, Sentinel 3 continues to hold on to Colt, but otherwise it does not move.

People are in a full panic now, streaming away down the streets urged on by the police. The intersection where the bulk of the protest was is mostly clear now.

Sentinel 1 is in the air and fires red blasts at Rogue from both hands. Sentinel 2 grabs the Overwatch officers near Rogue in its steel tentacles. They yell and flail ineffectually as they are brought back toward the Sentinel's hand. The other hand fires at Rogue.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue doesn't really answer people shouting at her about saving folks, she's not really interested in debating the use of guns against armored robots to save people. She just left that officer down there and went up to go tend to the others, where she's now being shot at yet again, causing her to drop down behind the ledge to avoid being sizzled by that first blast.

When she sees the other two officers getting claimed by the metal tentacles she reacts by leaping up and smashing her fists together down upon where they're coming from out of the robot's controller arm.

But the next blast lands solid on her, it sends her reeling backward and rolling across the roof, leaving her clothing sizzling as a result.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty veers to pass through the junction panel, aiming to quickly take out as much as she can. She continues working her way upwards. "You got a big ol' computer brain up there, and I know where it's at," she says to the Sentinel that she's systematically trying to shut down the systems of. The extensive study she and Forge did with the head of a previous Sentinel definitely can come in handy now as she knows whereabouts the important processors and memory are.

Kitty sticks her head out of its chest, seeing Colt. "Hang in there!" she yells down to him, then ducks back inside. Climbing ever higher to try to reach it's head. The continuous phase is starting to tire her some, but she's gone longer than this on many occasions. And the memory of holding Samuel Guthrie's dying body with a length of Sentinel tentacle through his chest is more than enough to spur her on, knowing it has Colt in its grasp.

Colt Cassidy has posed:
"Probably not the best choice of words!" Colt calls back to Kitty since he's hanging on in the air thanks to the tendril. Trying to bite it isn't working. So he starts trying to flex against it, straining to push with all the strength he can muster. He doesn't know what kind of forces these tendrils can exert. It did lift him like he was a toy after all.

But he does know that he's not gonna let some giant robot take him in just for being a mutant. So he pushes, kicking his feet up to latch his claws into the tendril and push with his legs. Maybe his strength can overcome the tendril. Or maybe Kitty will actually save him which would be good too!

Storm has posed:
The weather can't be rushed, and neither can Ororo. She coils a burst of dense water and wind around her, a wall of the stuff, and uses it to blast back the superheated steam and water with a moment of focused effort.

Rogue and Kitty and-- surprisingly! Colt, are more than holding their own here, and Ororo is safe to back up and hold herself in a twisting nexus of smoke and fog to hide herself from errant sniper shots.

She keeps the pressure up, gusts of desert-hot wind clashing with that ever-present cool air until the Sentinels are as soaked as she can estimate they'll get.

"Prepare for cold!" Ororo says into her earpiece, voice strained, and pushes both palms towards the ground. A howling blast of arctic wind plunges from the sky, held to a pencil-tight column a dozen feet in diameter, and hammers down at the Sentinels in an attempt to flash-freeze the ones not immediately adjacent to vulnerable allies or civilians.

Vision has posed:
Frigid arctic air descends on all three Sentinels. It is take your breath away and pain kind of cold, and it drives down over Colt, as well as the officers that are in the grips of Sentinel 2. Inside Sentinel 3, the temperature keeps rising fast. Abnormally fast. Wire sheathing begins to melt in front of Kitty's eyes.

Outside, Sentinel 3 is still not moving. Ice forms rapidly on its entire exterior, including all over the tentacle holding Colt. But it is vibrating, and the vibrations are growing more pronounced.

The shockwave generated by Rogue slices through the steel tentacles. The officers start falling 30 feet to the ground, sped up by the arctic winds.

Sentinel 1 loses height under the wind fast and lands back on the ground, unable to compensate with more thrust in time to deal with the sudden wind. It has no shot on anyone, obscured by Sentinel 2. Sentinel 2 extrapolates where the shockwave came from and raises a hand at Rogue. Ice crackles off its joints as it moves. Inside the head, water freezes fast as arctic air comes through the punctured optic, damaging motors and causing shorts across components because of impurities in the rain. It fires a blast vaguely in Rogue's direction, which thankfully punches through the clouds harmlessly.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is shook, but not knocked out, she's tougher than nails after all. So she's up onto her hands and knees, shaking her head and then quickly darting forward to soar out to pick up the other two officers that are falling out of the air, She grabs one and then the other, holding them in her arms. "Don't touch my skin." She warns them as she starts to descend with them to get away from the firing range of the Sentinel. She drops down to surface level to try to drop the officers off onto the ground, gently, vry gently, she doesn't want to break any of their toes or anything.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty sees the wiring melting and while it doesn't worry her for herself, she has no idea if Colt has freed himself. She swipes one last hand through the area where the central memory core was in the models they studied, and then runs and jumps out of the head. She lets gravity pull her as she turns jump into a swan dive towards the Colt.

As she reaches him, Kitty will try to grab at the rocky reptilian mutant, phasing him free of the tentacle and the both of them then falling towards the ground to disappear beneath it. Only to, if everything goes as planned, bop back up above ground a few seconds later where she can unphase him.

Colt Cassidy has posed:
Colt is still trying to free himself. The freezing air washes over him, ice crystals forming on the rocky surface of his skin, but he seems to be alive still, which is good. However, clearly escaping from a captive position without the use of his arms is something he's going to have to train on. Thankfully Kitty is there to rescue him. He looks up at her as she goes diving down out of the Sentinel, and then suddenly feels?Honestly he's not even sure the best way to describe it. He's falling, that much he knows.

He vanishes under the ground for a moment, and then re-emerges with her, and feels the ground solid under his feet again, "Damn that's cold.." He can still feel how cold it was from that blast of arctic wind, "That thing hasn't moved in a while, ever since it grabbed me. I don't like it." He says to Kitty, looking around to see if there's any civilians or other innocents still in the area that shouldn't be.

Vision has posed:
Rogue catches the two officers in time. One of them keeps screaming all the way until she puts him down and only then shuts up. He has the decency to look embarrassed.

"Thanks," he says sheepishly. It's the same one who was yelling at Rogue just moments ago.

Kitty's phasing and saving is very, very well timed. She drags Colt underground just as Sentinel 3 explodes. Thankfully, everyone has run by now. There is a blinding white light, followed by a fireball and Sentinel 3's insides are slag.

Sentinel 2 stops moving completely now and smoke is coming out of its broken optic. Nice normal electrical fire smoke.

Sentinel 1 has no shot on Rogue or the other mutants. Quick calculations are run. Its boosters fire and its starts taking off.

Storm has posed:
Ororo grimaces, watching the Sentinel leave. She's sorely tempted to swat it out of the sky, but there's no guarantee she won't be laying down a Sentinel-shaped hole in some poor apartment building.

Instead she gives herself a minute to dismiss the storm, reaching out far off the coast to funnel air and heat and displace what would have turned into a moderate tropical storm, turning it into scattered New England showers for the next week.

She slowly floats back to the ground and finds something to sit on, body bowing in exhaustion. Moving that air is a /lot/ of work. She flares her black cloak out so she's not sitting on it and rests her palms on her thighs while trying to still her harsh breathings.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is in the air not too long later. She's up in the air again purpose, waiting to see if anyone else tries to take a shot at her... any other challengers want to step up and face off, square off against her. When nothing comes though, she spots Storm and flies over toward her. Rogue drops out of the sky and lands beside Storm, her clothing is charred up, that laser blaster had left some holes in her shirt and jeans, but she's still left decent and all, just a little hazard damage.

"You okay?" Rogue asks Storm. "Whats the plan now?"

Colt Cassidy has posed:
That thing was trying to self destruct just to take him out. Colt is...Well he's not sure if he should be impressed or terrified. So he decides to be some mixture of both, "Holy shit that was crazy." How do people do that ALL THE TIME?

He looks at Kitty, "I hope Ms Munroe won't be upset that I disobeyed her, but I saw that thing holding those folks and I just..You know I had to do something."

Storm has posed:
"I'm fine, darling," Ororo says, waving off Rogue with a grimace of a smile. "I'm just... tired. That was draining." She forces herself to her feet, towering in those heels, and walks towards Kitty and Colt, bringing Rogue in her wake. "It's time for us to go," she says, cutting through Colt's excited jabber. "We'll come back for the bus later." She removes her cloak and offers it to Kitty to wrap herself in. "Rogue, carry Shadowcat. I'll carry... Stoneclaw," she says, a smile tugging on the edge of her face, and offers him a hand. "Until you settle on a better nickname," she assures him. A hand is offered to the fellow and she summons her will, preparing to fly.

"And you can think about that while in detention for disobeying me," Ororo tells him, with a humorous lack of rancore in her voice.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's hands end up in her jacket pocket, her gloves still on only slightly dirty on the palms. She does follow after Storm and will move to carry Kitty if the one known as Shadowcat needs it. "I'll come back for the bus in a bit. Might grab someone t'help. Don't think I should fly it back, probably would raise too many alarms t'have that tea thing flyin' through the Manhattan skyline."

Rogue nods to Colt. "Ya did good out there, detention well earned." She says to him with a slight grin.

Colt Cassidy has posed:
'Stoneclaw' takes the offered hand, and considers, "I dunno I kinda like that one." He says to her. Though of course when she mentions detention, he does look a bit crestfallen, but he gets it. He definitely disobeyed a direct order and will take his punishment accordingly.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde smiles over to Colt and says, "You helped people. If you had to not obey, that was about as good of a reason as you could have." She pats his shoulder and then looks over at the wreckage of the Sentinel. "Wish the other hadn't gotten away," she says, but she's also thinking about what might happen if it feel from a height.

She turns over towards Ororo and Rogue as they land. "Right. Best we get out of here," she agrees. Shadowcat reaches over towards Rogue for pick up, her own hands and arms covered so there isn't risk of comas. "You're kind of all skin showing. How is you can't make it through a fight without coming out looking all bedraggled sexy?" she asks, shaking her head to her old roommate as she grins.