9539/Get To The Choppa!

Get To The Choppa!
Date of Scene:	11 October 2019
Location:	Student Gardens, Xavier's School
Synopsis:	Bad guys beaten, but escaped.
Cast of Characters:	Cannonball, X-23, Rage, Nightingale, Samuel Morgan, Beast, Triage

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Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie is out with a walk through the garden. He has to go to work soon, but he is taking a moment to get a breath of fresh air before heading into the city tonight. He is checking on the veggies and seeing what he might need to harvest for tomorrow.

X-23 has posed:
Laura is heading out to the gardens herself. It's one of her favorite hangouts; the subtle scents of the flowers help to mask the cacophony of other scents she's often picking up. She sees Sam there, and gives a nod to him as she approaches. "Good evening, Sam." she offers.

Rage has posed:
Heading out into the garden is Andrea, who is currently dressed in workout clothes. She has been out on a jog and in need of some fresh air after hanging out with the others in the DR. She has on some headphones, blasting music into her skull.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie looks over to Laura, and says "Hello Laura. how are you doing today, anything interesting been going on?" He will ask, turn to talk to her offering a smile.

X-23 has posed:
Laura shakes her head. "Not really. Simply another day. The weekend is coming up, and I was debating going to Manhattan this weekend. Other than that, things seem very normal."

Of course, saying something like that is just asking for trouble from Murphy's Law. And that's when there's the sound of a loud crash coming from the western wall of the Institute grounds.

Rage has posed:
Tilting her head upwards at the sound of the crash, Andrea slows her step and takes the head set off to dangle around her neck. She looks over to Sam and Laura. "Did you guys hear that? Did someone just drive a car into a wall?"

Nightingale has posed:
     It had been shaping up to be a nice, quiet evening, with a little bit of time left before class by the lake. Shannon had finally finished her small sewing project from the day before, and only hoped the recipient enjoyed it and might find it useful. She had let her hair down from the bun it was in for the danger room session earlier, and gone to wearing a simple white t-shirt, straight-legged jeans, sneakers, and her little brown leather pouch. There was a lot on her mind, and her wings still drooped behind her more often than not, never a good sign to anybody who knew her. Maybe a walk outside would clear her head, she thought. So outside she went. Nice, quiet, and simple, right?

     Wrong.

     The crash, followed by the alarms, catches her attention immediately, and she let out a heavy sigh. "Awww, hell's bells... what the /fuck/ is going on now?" She joins the group that seems to be gathering in the gardens. "What's the sitrep, guys?"

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie looks over to Shannon and says "Inducer." So she will hide the wings "Lets go see what it is, could just be something normal, so normal student stuff for now." He will start to jog in the direction of the noise, motioning for the others to follow him.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    Morning run, breakfast, workout, classes, DR session, classes... as much as anything in this mansion can be routine, Sam-Bean has settled into a nice little groove. It's keeping him busy /and/ in shape, with the added bonus of providing an education. He's getting the idea that the education is really the thing they would like him to focus on, but then again so far his mind hasn't been challenged to any degree. The routine is broken up suddenly by the alarms.

    There is no keeping him, he's out into the hallway like a shot, running through a corridor of students going in the other direction who all hurriedly get out of his way. Reputation seems to be preceding him. Out in the gardens, hang a left, into the smaller vegetable patch. He doesn't even slow down when he sees his team leader running towards what he takes to be the site of the disturbance.

    Excellent. Action time. "On your six, Mister Guthrie."

Rage has posed:
Furrowing her brows, Andrea sees the gathered start to head over, then continues on as well as she follows after. She'll heed Cannonball's instruction as she jogs along, tapping her music off on the device strapped to her arm.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods once and taps her image inducer, her wings vanishing from view and the back of her shirt appearing whole and devoid of slits. "Copy that, Bean and I on your six there, big brother." She actually grins over at Bean, chuckling lightly. "If that's the Fairy King out there, he's one noisy sum'beach."

X-23 has posed:
It is decidedly NOT normal student stuff. A look at the wall will reveal that it's been basically exploded, leaving a big hole in it. There's some kind of creature there, shiny and silver as if it might be made of some kind of metal, but a form that's...well, it's technically capable of bipedal stance and motion, but it'll be faster and more probably moves on all fours. It's...vaguely reptilian. Very vaguely.

Laura charges off with Sam and Sam, as she starts off at a full run. Seeing the creature doesn't really give her pause; it's just a target like any other. At least, that's her initial approach.

Unfortunately, that doesn't last long. A woman saunters in not far behind the creature. While /it/ is charging at full speed towards the students, she's staying further back. Her skin is dusky, her hair dark, and she's wearing some kind of crop-top vest, tight pants, and boots. And carrying a...yep. That's a rotary-cartridge grenade launcher. Military hardware.

Laura comes to a full stop and looks like she's seen a ghost. She pales several shades, and takes no further motion closer, apparently frozen.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie is a decent field leader. He will actually notice Laura stopping and call out X snap out of it, if you know who and what this is, Ah want info now. Tech Nightingale your on the woman, Rage you and I got Fido." And with that he kicks in his blast field heading straight for the charging critter expecting his charge to be a lot more effective than he critters.

Rage has posed:
Furrowing her brows as she spies the monster and the woman behind her, Andrea pushes off harder on her feet, then leaps forward and on to all fours as her body begins to bulk up, crack, snap and BAM! The large war form of the werewolf goes bounding forward at breakneck speed, jaws split open and howling loudly in challenge as she aims down the middle towards the creature. Her claws curve outwards, looking to barrel herself straight into it to contest.

Nightingale has posed:
     "Copy that, Cannonball. Techno, let's go round 'er up. Watch yourself, she's packing some heat!" Whichever way Bean goes, she goes the opposite direction, to force the woman to split her attention as she winged her way into the air; in this case, perhaps two moving targets might be better than one? Who was this woman? What in the billy blue blazes was that creature? And why did they have Laura scared enough to nearly freeze in her tracks?

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    Whoa hoo... yeah. Not something of the usual variety then. Metallic silver beasts is entirely out of Bean's repertoire, and he came unprepared to slay such a thing, unless of course it happened to be a robot of some kind. Then, then he'd have some fun. But the lady with the M32A1 grenade launcher? That's well within his wheelhouse.

    He doesn't break stride as he goes wide, angling to avoid the charge and then curve back towards the unwanted visitor. "Nightingale, wide or up. That's not a toy she's holding!". He's only reinforcing what she already did out of instinct, and he's pretty happy that she did. But now's the hard part... 40mm grenades were no joke.

X-23 has posed:
    Sam cannonballs into the thing, and the effects are, thankfully, mostly as expected! There's a LOUD *whang* as invulnerable blast field contacts the metal the thing's either made out of or covered with, and it proceeds to go ass over teakettle back by a few yards. Not as much as might have been desired, but the thing is both very strong and very heavy for its size; it's not dissimilar to cannonballing into a truck, from Sam's perspective.

Andrea hits the thing a moment later. Her claws make a screeching sound as she digs them into the metal of the thing. There are deep scratches in the metal, but it's held true, being a very strong metal covering. It's maybe about 20% bigger than she is in her werewolf form, but there's definite similarities, both being clawed killing death machines. It's just cheating and covered with metal.

Shannon has the aerial vantage point, which is keeping her safe from the big clawed nasty. Unfortunately, this means that she's now gotten the woman's interest. She smiles darkly, and lifts that grenade launcher. There are three deep base *doomp* sounds, as she fires three grenades skywards, moving the launcher slightly to cover an arc. The shells prove to be airburst shells, and a shower of some kind of liquid splatters out through the air, and covering the battlefield below, as well as a fine mist of it filling the air.

Since she's focusing on the air, that leaves Samuel's approach more or less clear. He's got a good open approach to her at the moment, and he closes the distance with alacrity.

Sam's shout sparks a response from X-23, as she shakes off her momentary freeze. But she still doesn't go any closer, instead shouting as loudly as she can, "Get away!! Run!!"

The beast flails and snarls as it starts to right itself. A muscled, clawed arm lashes out at Andrea, since she's the closest person at the moment.

Rage has posed:
Once she lands on top of the beast, Rage's eyes gleam brightly in a berserker yellow as primal instincts kick in. One large foot slams into it's chest, as her large paws look to grab the creature by the muzzle and seek to yank it's mouth wide open in an attempt to split it in half. She seeks to kill as adrenaline courses through her veins, causing her heart to pound. ~YOU ARE MEAT ON THE INSIDE. I WILL FEAST UPON YOUR MARROW!~ She screams down in her animal tongue. The claws tear through her, ripping heavy welts and spilling blood down her black pelt, but she continues to fight as she seeks to break the head of this creature.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie will knock the beast a bit and starts to see the liquid starting to rain down on those around here. "Techno, engage the Sprinklers now, if you can up their output Ah want maximum soakage. Nightingale you do not get out of the air. His turn moves to have him barreling down on X-23. X is this what Ah think it is?" He is ready to grab her, and move her away from the others trusting on his field to protect him. If he does not get get a good answer Sam and X will be heading towards the lake.

Nightingale has posed:
     Cannonball's order came just in the nick of time, with Shannon already in the air. "Copy that, big brother! Whoaaaaaah! The HECK?!" Shannon is forced to fly higher still to get past the range of the shells, and well... let's just say certain individuals would -not- be too pleased with her language right now. "Watch yourselves for fallout down there, she's fired something that's bringing some real nasty rain!"

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    The fun bit about being a technopath? When someone tells you to turn on the sprinklers at full soak, you don't need to actually go anywhere. In this case, Techno keeps running full tilt while still doing what he's been asked to do. He doesn't know what the liquid is, only that the ground is going to be soaked and muddy pretty soon, because he's turning these sprinklers wide open.

    None of this, absolutely none of this, has altered his intentions, as he bears down on mystery woman with the weapon he's absolutely going to be taking off her. The distance closes rapidly, and then it's go time.

    On his face there is no smile, no snarl, no expression at all. A werewolf might be terrifying, X-23 might be lethal, but he's the next dangerous thing in this yard. Pushing off, he jumps to close the last of the distance, right arm pulled back, aiming to deliver a knockout blow to the woman's face. He's off the leash...

X-23 has posed:
Well, if Rage is going to be so kind as to shove her hands into its muzzle, it's going to do its level damndest to bite and eat whatever she's putting in there. It seems to really be doing its level best to /eat/ the mutant girl. The lower legs lift and pump, like a big cat might, trying to gut her. She'll probably get herself bloodier still, but she can start making some progress, as she starts pryyyying the mouth open. She's stronger than it, but not by much. It's going to be a slow go.

As the mist and spray go down over the battlefield, Laura's eyes literally go red. She snarls, and her claws come out, and she starts to charge towards the creature and Andrea...only to get plowed into by Cannonball. She slams her claws into him, again and again, and it is a VERY good thing for his blasting field.

Shannon can manage to avoid the goo, as she flies higher, getting out of the way. The woman takes a more careful aim at Shannon with her launcher, and gets ready to fire.

The sprinkler system turns on full force, spraying water out over the students (or at least the ones at ground level). Meanwhile, Sammy can swing at the woman, and he lands his blow exactly on the mark. Unfortunately, he might as well have just punched steel. The woman has some kind of invulnerability, and her flesh doesn't even /budge/.

Rage has posed:
Howling loudly as she feels her body become sliced open again, Rage's claws dig harder into the jaws of the creature, /yanking/ with all her strength as she tries to use the leverage of her height and position. Her large foot kicks out to shove itself into the throat of the creature. You can't bite if you can't breathe. Though she may be having her guts hang out in a short moment, she refuses to let up in her aggressive attack. Keep this creature busy, so the rest of the team can manage the battlefield. ~DIE DIE DIE~ She howls loudly as blood spills down from her chomped paws and on to the face of the metallic monster.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie is headed for the lake with X-23, he blasts into the lake, and stays under for a moment to get Laura soaked to the bone, and hopefully washed clean of the scent. He then starts to head up to try to see whats going on, but also keeping Laura away from the battle if she still is all kill kill murder murder mutilate.

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy hears an alert, and bursts out from the mansion, jogging around to where the action is. He rests his hands on his hips, and sizes up the fight.

Nightingale has posed:
     Witnessing the reaction--or lack thereof--from the woman to Bean's attack, Shannon is temporarily at a loss. Or is she? Fine, if the lady wanted to play some Duck Hunt, she'd just make sure that stupid dog was laughing at her in the end! Her agility practice is starting to pay off as she zips one direction, then the other, zig-zagging in the air and never staying in one place too long, hoping to prevent the woman from getting a clean shot at her. Hopefully, the fact that her wings were still hidden might actually help her, as it would minimize her visual profile!

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    And people sometimes ask him why he punches the heavy bag until his knuckles bleed. When Sam-Bean feels the impact of his fist against the woman, he's very glad for having worked back up his resistance to pain that is absolutely required for this kind of bare knuckle skirmish. A crack of knuckles, but his fingers still work, and that's all that matters. Brute force isn't going to win this. And she's aiming at his friend? Oh no. No no no, he made a promise not very long ago.

    Like lightning, as he lands, Bean lashes out with a round kick aimed for the grenade launcher, to knock it askew and spoil the aim, followed by a grab and overhand twist, barrel to buttstock, a disarming move designed specifically to break fingers unless the weapon is released.

X-23 has posed:
The creature lets out a nasty hacking sound as Andrea plants her foot on its throat. It's thrashing about, but there are some cracking sounds coming from its jaws. It's still flailing and striking for as best as it can. There's going to be a LOT of blood on the ground after this.

Sam BLOOSHES into the lake. The good news is that it washes the goo off Sam. Which means Laura is no longer trying to gut Sam. She is, however, trying to get free of him, so she can go gut everyone /else/. She slashes at Sam's eyes, furiously, with her claws.

Shannon manages her evasive pattern, and the woman is looking exasperated. Right up to the point when Samuel spins the launcher on her, because she's too distracted trying to get a bead on Shannon.

Her skin may be invulnerable, but she still has to obey the laws of physics, and the launcher goes out of her hands. She takes a couple steps back, and touches a finger to an ear bud. "The prototype is about to become incapacitated, and I'm getting more and more resistance here. Begin extraction." A crackling energy begins to surround her, and the monster-thing that Andrea is fighting.

Rage has posed:
Indeed. There is a lot of blood. As Rage slowly attempts to regenerate some of it, she puts all her weight down on the throat of the monster, shoving her knee forward under its jaw. Her large paws give another hulking tug, knowing that she is making progress and it only drives the animal inside of her wild. ~OOooh Yeeeesss... ~ She hisses as her tongue lashes about her muzzle excitedly. Crunch. Crack.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie will keep hold of X, and yells at her "Laura, your in there fight it Laura." He continues upward, looking over towards the other fight "Whats that glow?" Will come over the new mutants com channel. But he is back to Laura "Laura fight the control, you are in there girl, you can come out of this." He is also hoping the height may get her to a point she does not smell the scent at all.

Nightingale has posed:
     Laws of physics, indeed. With the woman distracted by Techno, it's time for Shannon to make her move. She taps her comms quickly. "Techno, heads up! Incoming!" With that, she pulls her unseen wings in tightly, diving towards the woman at breakneck speed. Mr. McCoy knew this maneuver well. Her hair whips about behind her as she nears the woman, changing the angle of her body as she snaps her wings outwards at the last second, so that her feet are aimed squarely at the woman's back. Flying kick much, anyone?

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    You cannot change the laws of physics. Technique beats strength every time, as his instructors had been at pains to explain to a young Techno all those years ago. Thank you, combat instructor Ferrol. The launcher is reversed, and a quick scan of the weapon as Techno brings it into his own hands makes an inventory of the ammunition, even as he data-dumps every last nybble of information he can rip from that comm bead into his own phone.

    He steps back and kneels, racking the cylinder of the launcher twice, bringing it up to the woman who's about to escape. He'd checked the witness holes.

    He spotted the ammo loadout.

    His finger tightens on the trigger for the one 40mm frag round that was loaded... and releases the tension the very moment he realises Shannon is in the blast range. Index finger comes to rest on the trigger guard, his thumb flicks the safety switch down, and he yanks the barrel clear of the engagement zone. "Nightingale, get clear!"

X-23 has posed:
    There's more audible...and disgusting...crunching sounds, as the things jaw bones and muscles give way. The /skin/ remains coated with metal, though, so the skin is still holding it together...if in a technical and floppy fashion. It makes a hissing noise, and then that energy that started surrounding it flares...and it vanishes with a pop, as the air flares in where it was.

It would be nice to say that it was Sam's inspiring words that helped Laura shake it off. What it actually is, is that Sam's traveled high enough up that she can't smell the trigger scent from up there. She blinks a couple times, and looks around, the red fading from her eyes. She takes in the situation in a moment, making a snap evaluation. "Powerdive us into the ground." She tells Sam. "You're needed down there and can't be tied up keeping me out of the fight. The impact will knock me out, and I'll regenerate the injury."

Shannon, much like Samuel before her, is going to discover the woman's invulnerability...and the fact that comes with a LOT of added mass. Physics still works...the woman is going to pitch forward with a THUD, making a woman-shaped crater where she hits. But it was still akin to Shannon doing a flying kick into a wall. Her feet, ankles, and shins are probably not going to thank her for it.

Samuel grabs the launcher, and cycles up the single fragmentation grenade in it...only to then have a teammate in the blast radius. The woman looks over her shoulder at Shannon. "Bitch!" she says, and starts to push herself up to go to fight...and then she, too, vanishes with a pop, just like the monster did.

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy sees blood, and pain, and difficulty. So well, here's what he's gonna do. He's gonna start running forward. "Who needs help?" he then just yells out. "I can't hurt something metal, but I can sure help." But then things start disappearing, and he stops, scratching his head in the most simian way. "Huh."

Rage has posed:
As the face starts to give way and split backwards as if it was a dying Pac-Man, Rage's eyes are hungrily starving down at the prey. She gives one last snap, then falls forward in a stumble as she hits the ground. With the enemy gone, she lets out a loud roar of frustration, giving a few pounds of the ground with her fists. As she rises upwards, she takes a few stumbling steps forward before her entire body lurches in crippling pain. Clutching herself about the stomach, her yelps echo as she crumples to the ground in a bloody heap.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie will turn to head back down. "Whats going on down there?" He will ask again on the com. He does not like the idea of power bombing Laura. He keeps an eye on her eyes, if she does start to trigger again he will do it, but hopefully the water and sprinklers have washed it away enough not to trigger her.

Nightingale has posed:
     There's a few words calling into question the woman's dubious parentage, particularly when Shannon goes skidding and rolling forward. She's able to get her arms over her head and the back of her neck to prevent her skull or neck being broken as she tumbles forward on the ground, but unfortunately there is a sickening crunch as her right lower leg is caught beneath her at an odd angle on impact. That, and someone's got a nasty little case of woodsy road rash, potentially a bit of a concussion, the way she's jostled about. She comes skidding to a halt not too far off from Bean.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    For a moment it looks like he was going to have to do something desperate, but luckily the assailant vanished just before he was forced to make a difficult decision. But just because Techno can't see an immediate threat doesn't mean another isn't lurking nearby, so he scans his sector, traversing the barrel of his weapon as he scans.

    Treeline, ground, shadows, atmospherics, open sight lines, scanning offset from the sights to avoid fixation... is that... no, it isn't. He's aware of Shannon nearby, aware that he can't check on her until he's done his duty. It drags, his eyes flick from side to side. And then, finally, he double-checks the safety on his weapon and lowers the barrel, calling out in person and over the nearest comm he can link into

    "West, clear! Medic!"

X-23 has posed:
Most people couldn't smell the trigger scent. Most people aren't Laura. Her senses are keener than her "father". And the woman dropped /three grenades/ full of the scent onto her teammates. If Sam starts her down again, she'll go red-eye all over again. It's going to take a scrubbing down like someone would to get rid of skunk spray (or some well-placed chemical cleaning spray from Dr. McCoy) to get that off the airburst'd people before Laura isn't trying to gut them in a mindless fury.

But the enemy is gone. At least for now. A shattered hole in the west wall of the property. A bunch of blood (both Andrea's and the monster's) coating a big patch of the grass. Concentrated trigger scent all over the garden. Everyone in the are dripping wet from the full-bore sprinkler system (or diving into a lake). And a plethora of minor injuries from trying to punch and drop-kick an invulnerable woman.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie will do the dive bomb on poor Laura wincing as he lets her go arching up at the last moment, so she gets full inpact into the earth. He really hopes he aint killing her, but trusting her to know what she can take. Once he is started back up, he kills the blast to land and start heading towards the Students. And seeing Andrea down will start to head towards her.

Rage has posed:
As the large werewolf gives a visible shudder, Andrea starts to crack and twist once more as her body shrinks down to her naked, human skin. Her body is torn apart across her chest and stomach, bleeding profusely and unconscious. Her clothing is torn to shreds behind her from when she went through her forms. Goodbye $200 designer jeans.

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy starts seeing the injuries, now that the threat is done. He jogs toward Andrea. "What's going on. Are you alright?" Kneeling down beside her, doing a quick bit of diagnosis.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon looks a little dazed as she pushes herself to sitting upright, glancing around. The woman-sized crater. Debris kicked up everywhere and dragged along her path on the ground. Techno doing what Techno does. She gives him a thumbs up and a bit of a smile--despite the very unhealthy-looking state of her lower right leg. "Get someone to Andrea, that metal lizard-thing was really having at her..."

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    With the threat over, Bean is jogging over to Shannon, and dropping to one knee. He starts scanning again, providing overwatch while waiting for someone with training to come assist. "That was a pretty spectacular dive attack. But never. Ever. get in front of a grenade launcher. I nearly shot you." His voice is still unemotional, and his manner still that of a soldier on high alert. That meant he was aware of Doctor McCoy seeing to Andrea, but nobody yet looking after Shannon. Battlefield protocol is to mark the wounded and provide cover, and he's doing just that.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie comes walking up, and pulls his shirt off handing it to Beast to use to help staunch Andrea's wounds. Over the com he will call out "Triage, come to Andrea first, do not, I repeat do not heal Laura. We need her KOed till we have this cleaned up. He looks over to Sam "Site Report." He says in a military fashion knowing the young man is more comfortable with it.

Rage has posed:
The young popstar doesn't appear to be responding to anyone as her breath comes out quick and ragged. She definitely will have a couple of scars along her body after this. No more bikini modeling shots for her future without major photoshopping.

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy shakes his head as he sizes up Andrea. "This is bad. We need to get her inside immediately, on a table. Can someone help me carry her gently?"

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Clear West. Loaded HE, last round, two non lethal remaining." Techno rattles it off automatically, keeping his eyes on the surroundings. "Primary target absconded, disarmed. Secondary target absconded, presumed fatally injured. Data dump completed, minor injuries, one trooper non-com, one trooper requiring medevac ASAP. Total casualties two. Orders?" The way he's holding the grenade launcher is slightly... unnerving. He somehow, for the first time since coming to the school, looks complete.

Triage has posed:
A caravan of rugged gurneys barrels across the lawn between the mansion and the garden. At its lead, clutching a large satchel, runs Triage. He leads the team toward the scene of carnage and wreckage. His eyes dart around the chaos until he spots McCoy kneeling over another body. Triage glances to Bean and nods, as if the sight of the student wielding a grenade launcher is not completely surprising. Then he accelerates, veering toward the downed student and Doc.