9663/Apple Park Autumn

Apple Park Autumn
Date of Scene:	20 October 2019
Location:	Apple Park - Salem Center
Synopsis:	Rogue and Fantomex team up to battle some FoH scum bags! Robots are punched. Old men's fingers are broken. Its a good time.
Cast of Characters:	Rogue, Fantomex

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Rogue has posed:
Its a fall festival in Apple Park, pretty much all October, every weekend there's something going on here. Live music and a lively atmosphere. Today is one of those day. There's pumpkin patches setup for people (mostly kids) to wander through to pick a big round orange pumpkin of their very own, arts and crafts booths setup in a series of rows and more.

Rogue is in attendance, wearing a light jacket and a wool knit beanie over other casual clothing beneath it. She's wandering around and enjoying a cup of hot tea. It is a very casual atmosphere and she's enjoying it. She finds a table that is open and just settles in at it by herself, her cup set down on the table, her hands then going up to brush her two toned hair off of her shoulders.

Fantomex has posed:
Town festivals are not exactly Fantomex' favorite places to spend the afternoon. But when he is working, he doesn't get to pick, and there are certainly far worse places.

Besides, it is not as if anyone is going to see him, right? Indeed, the white-clad thief is cloaked in illusion and looks like just a brown-haired college student enjoying a Saturday evening. Doing what college students do. What is that? Fantomex has no idea. There are holes in his training, okay? But he is good at improvising.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue has her phone out onto the table within a few moments so that she can sort through the images and videos she'd taken today. With the sun setting on the horizon there wasn't much day left to enjoy, but she figured she'd linger around until after it'd gone down to enjoy some of the music and atmosphere as well.

As she looks up again to sip her drink she spots the guy about her age and she offers him an upnod as he saunters past her table. She's none the wiser with regard to his illusion that he has up over himself, having no idea who he is or the person he's pretending not to be after all.

Fantomex has posed:
Fantomex flashes Rogue a grin when she acknowledges his existence. He fails to recognize her for about a second. Then it dawns to him. Maybe due to E.V.A. poking at him directly into his triple brain.

So here we have a rather famous mutant, ex-Avenger, woman able to lift tanks and punch through concrete as if it was cardboard. Definitely dangerous and best avoided. That would be the professional thing to do, stick to the mission and all that.

So naturally Fantomex decides to walk closer and peer to her tablet. "Good afternoon. I am Jean-Philippe," he greets, his usually outrageous French accent toned down two notches. "I hadn't seen you before, are you alone?"

Somewhere in the private psychic plane E.V.A. and Fantomex use to communicate a technorganic organism in the form of a flying saucer manages to make a psychic facepalm.

Rogue has posed:
On Rogue's phone is just a series of images that appear to have been taken today at the festival. She's gotten pictures of the pumpkin patches, and some of the trees turning shades of other wild colors with kids running around and playing beneath them, they're pretty lovely pictures but all very just casual and the like. Its things that she shares on her social medial pages, for all her followers to look at and interact with her on.

When the young man approaches and speaks out to her, she recognizes the accent immediately and adjusts her voice to speak to him fluently in French. Something her mother taught her as a kid and she kept up with to today. "Bonjour la, Jean-Philippe." She states to him in her naturally sultry toned voice. Her green eyes dart left and right before she continues in French. "Si vous appelez un festival rempli de gens seuls." 'If you call a festival filled with people to be alone.'

Rogue grins then and switches back to English. "But yes, I came here by myself. Just t'enjoy the fall weather." And her accent has gone back to her natural Southern Belle flavor.

Fantomex has posed:
Jean-Philippe seems pleasantly surprised at Rogue's flawless French response, at least he is smiling more. He tilts his head and replies, "we can be alone in a crowd. It is easy. In your case, mademoiselle, it is almost a crime. You are just too beautiful to be alone. Allow me to honor of your company. May I offer you another cup of tea, or perhaps one of those amusing-looking pumpkin pies, or even a weekend in Paris with me?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue brightens up and entirely beam at the man's compliments afforded to her, they're kind and amusing, endearing and well received. "You're sweet." She says to him in her initial response. "And... well.. I'm a bit busy t'run off t'Paris. College'n work'n all. Plus, the last time I was there it didn't go so hot. But, I don't hold that against the city. I just hold it against my life bein' kind've a weird roller coaster of stupid ups'n downs."

A gloved hand is offered to Jean-Philippe then. "I'm Marie and well... I guess I could get a refill on my drink..." She glances at her cup, its almost empty, she bought it over an hour ago.

Fantomex has posed:
"Wonderful," decides Jean-Philippe. Undaunted by the fact Rogue picked the less interesting -if- more reasonable option. Well, taking her to Paris also entirely possible if extremely unpractical. But he was serious about it anyway.

So he will happily settle for the cup of tea, and after a brief scanning of the area plus consultation with his Internet-connected partner-in-crime, he selects a cozy-looking cafe just around the corner to take Rogue.

Unfortunately just then he sees his quarry. A thin, tall, middle age man with a sour expression. Looking out of place in the fall festival on a large grey coat. The two burly gentlemen following him pretty much scream 'we evil goons'.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue had gotten her cup of hot tea from a vendor setup just down the pathway where the food at the festival is being served. But Salem Center itself has plenty of such options and that is likely what Jean-Philippe had found.

The southern belle gives the young man a smile and nods her head. "So what brings you here this evening?" She asks. "You goin' t'school around here or you got family in this area?" Westchester is one of the wealthiest counties in America with the average household income over 100 thousand a year... its a pretty upscale place.

She is completely unaware of Fantomex and his newly acquired target though!

Fantomex has posed:
"I was going to meet with old Professor Valkenburg," admits Jean-Philippe, his attention back to the Southern Belle. "I thought he wouldn't come, but..." he hesitates. "Would you go into the cafe? I promise this should take but ten minutes."

If absolutely everything goes well and his luck holds. So lets say 50/50 it takes ten minutes.

Fantomex is not going to use his powers on Rogue, but he does sound convincing and charming.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is up from the table she was at and she'd followed him along the pathway. At his question for her to go to the cafe she nods her head lightly once. "Sure thing." She says then, heading on inside. Once inside she raises a hand up to remove her hat, then run her hand through her hair to try to make some sense of it, white and brown locks going every which way in a wild display, but still pretty nice looking.

Rogue walks about the inside of the cafe now and finds a bench to settle down onto. Truth is she's still uncomfortable about being in public places this this past summer where a sniper took a shot at her in the Baskin Robbins a block or two over from here.

Fantomex has posed:
Rogue would be perfectly safe in the cafe because the Hydra agents don't know she is around. Even if they know, they would likely just abort the operation, since she is not the target and they aren't ready for her.

But that is not how events roll.

What happens is Jean-Philippe approaches Professor Valkenburg, high ranked Hydra techie, and attempts to convince him he is the contact he is supposed to meet here. Because his misdirection powers, the old Hydra bastard is just as suspicious as he would be from a real FoH contact. Which is very, because he is suspicious of anyone. So a quiet conversation follows, with his goons watching and listening. Rogue can see this from the cafe.

Then the real FoH group arrives. Four in number, and quite unhappy because they lost the bulk of their Sentinel friends recently. Showing the their typical lack of common sense they all pull guns on the Hydra group, and of course also on Fantomex.

And Rogue is not the only one that sees that. There are plenty of civilians around!

Rogue has posed:
Rogue didn't notice anything at first, she'd just found a bench to settle down onto the edge of and glance down at her phone when it buzzed with a message, darn thing was practically always going off, but such is the life of a young adult in the 2020s.

Eventually she does look up and outside though and she does take note of Jean-Phillipe being--what looks like--accosted. Her eyes narrow and she stands up, then starts toward the exit of the cafe.

Lets not forget that earlier this past summer, Rogue had been shot in the head by a sniper through the front window of a Baskin Robbins just down the street. Then they'd fired an RPG at the damn place.. she's a bit on edge about being in public still.

Stepping outside to walk to the curb, Rogue stands there to watch for a moment.

Fantomex has posed:
There is this foursome of menacing guys, buzzcut hairstyles and weird white coats. Otherwise they look fairly normal, although two of them have pulled large caliber handguns (Desert Eagles semi-autos, those things are expensive!). An old, thin man (Valkenburg, Jean-Philippe called him) looks irritated and not very intimidated. Two very large guys flank the old man, like 270 lbs. of solid muscle and a rather empty expression in their chiseled blonde good looks.

Between all them is Rogue's new friend, apparently trying to calm both groups. "This is clearly a misunderstanding," he says with a faint smirk. "I assure you Reverend Stryker in person sent me here. Why? Don't you remember seeing me with him?" He looks at the eyes of the taller of the angry white-coats and the man lowers his gun, nodding slowly.

"I... yeah, I remember now," states the thug. But as the situation looks almost defused, another of his friends spots Rogue. "Hey! I know that woman."

Rogue has posed:
When the handguns are brandished, Rogue just sighs softly and glances down to shake her head side to side. As she looks back up she starts to walk forward, stepping off the curb and pausing a moment to let a SUV drive past, then she moves on across the street, with her hands inside the pockets of her leather bomber jacket.

As she's crossing the street to where they all are, is when she's noticed. When she's noticed... she raises her right gloved hand up and out from inside her jacket, and waves it friendly-like to the man who calls her out.

Rogue continues to approach them all and once she's within reasonable ear shot of everyone involved she speaks up, after sweeping her gaze across them, with her white bangs flowing across her face in the evening autumn breezes. "Put your guns away." She tells them. "Or I'll break every single bone in each of ya'lls hands, and then smash the guns just for the fuck'a it." These words are said as orders, but in a casual style.

Fantomex has posed:
"No, you don't know her..." starts Jean-Philippe, when Rogue closes in and threatens with a good deal of bone breaking. He chuckles and sighs. "Mon Dieu... I think I am in love."

But Valkenburg's bodyguards instantly shift to stand before the man. "I can identify... 98 percent match, Dr. Valkenburg." Beat. "She is an Avenger."

Apparently the bodyguard does not care much Rogue is a mutant. That might be novel. But of course... "kill her! Kill them all!" Screams the old man, stepping back. His coat opens and TWO NEW arms, metallic, smaller than the regular ones, sprout from his chest, with submachine guns.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue had expected the reaction like this, though she'd glanced at Jean-Phil when he'd made that little comment, her eyes immediately go to the man who order the others to 'kill her'. So she responds in kind by gliding up into the air kicking at the chest of the gunman closest to her. Not enough of a kick to put her foot through his chest, no, she's learned to control her strength very well through arduous Danger Room sessions... her kick in fact geared toward shoving the gunman maybe 20 or 30 feet off into the park where the hills roll down into a flora-filled treeline, lots of leaves and muck'n'mud down there.

Hovering in the air now, Rogue's eyes go to the metallic arms with the machine guns... she starts to fly-charge toward this man to try to rip those things out of his person, not really afraid of any bullets or fire from the gunmen around them.

Should they fire, she'll just let their bullets ring off of her nearly impervious body.

Fantomex has posed:
The bodyguard takes a kick to his chest. It should have send him flying, maybe broke a few ribs, but there is a loud 'clonk' and he only flies back a couple feet, crashing loudly on the pavement and rolling back to his feet. Meanwhile the second bodyguard tries to grab her ankle and stop her from getting to the old man.

"Oh... Valkenbug is a robotics expert from Hydra," mentions Jean-Philippe. "Those two are robots, kick harder." As he talks both the FoH white-coats and Valkenburg open fire on him. Jean-Philippe takes a lot of bullets. A lot. There is a lot of blood. There is a lot of screams, but those come from two of the white-coats that are hit by Valkenburg's full auto submachine guns.

And Jean-Philippe? He vanishes in a puff of white mist. Blood and all.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue feels the hands gasp onto her ankle and lock on pretty tightly, tighter than a human would be able to grab her. It gets a moment's glance but her respond is to just swing her leg forward and drag the Grabber with it to use him as a battering-tool and slam him INTO another one of the goons!

"Don't touch a lady without her perMISSIN!" She shouts along with the motion of the swinging-kick!

She had a feeling Jean-Philippe was more than he was letting on, as a guy like him doesn't just get accosted by a group of men with guns for no damn reason here in Salem Center of all places--sleepy capitol of the east coast.

The one with the machine gun arms though? Rogue is flying to tackle that one, to shove it to the ground and to start pounding fists into it's face, if its a robot, she's not going to hold back one damn bit.

Fantomex has posed:
"There is another loud crash as robot One crashes on robot Two, who was just sanding up. There are some broken things there, including a chunk of face that falls of, revealing grey-blue metal underneath. Still, the don't seem to badly damaged and scamper to save Valkenburg from Rogue.

Just not quick enough! She slams on the old man and he crashes on the ground with a pained cry. His metal arms let the guns drop to try to push the young woman off, but they aren't anywhere strong enough. The rest of him, flesh and blood and rather ancient too, does not look able to survive if Rogue even slaps him with mild meanness. In fact, he might have broken a hip already.

"Valkenburg is not a robot," mentions Jean-Phillip from -somewhere-. "He is, however, an old school Nazi. Son of an SS survivor that fled to Argentina, he joined Hydra at eighteen, back in the sixties."

That the Frenchman can talk this clearly while engaging in a shootout with a few Friends of Humanity thugs is a bit weird. But somehow he manages. Also, they white-coats end up very dead about the time one of the robots reaches Rogue and tries to give her a 50,000 volts jolt in the back.

The citizens of Salem Center are not used to this kind of excitement, though, so there are many screams, car screeches and people running away. The police should be here in a minute.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's ability to sense that this Valkenberg wasn't a robot was enough to stop her from smashing his head into the ground. Jean-Phil's voiced words only aide that as well. So she stops herslef, and instead just grabs his hands and squeezes them until she hears bones inside of them audibly pop. Then she stands and turns to the ones that she knows are Robots.

"I'm so sicka livin' in a world where this kinda nonsense keeps happenin' all around me!" She grumbles while stalking to one of the robot goons, letting it shoot or attack her however it wants before she does try to smash a fist through IT'S robotic face!

What with the Sentinels, a crazy trip to the Savage Lands, nearly dying on the moon due to lack of oxygen... Rogue's had a pretty tumultuous year of ups and downs, mostly downs which have left her a bit aggravated!

Fantomex has posed:
The old man gets four broken hands from Rogue and will spend a long while in an hospital, if SHIELD does not get him first. But his robots still have some fighting left. Just they are not fast enough. The first one coming finds Rogue already turning and her first punch smashes his 'face' and much of his artificial brain. He still manages to deliver his electroshock, though, but only for a second or two before total shutdown. These are not Sentinels.

The second robot moves to engage when Fantomex appears behind him, shooting through its knee joint from behind with an armor-piercing bullet. The robot falls down face first. And before it turns, it takes a dozen more bullets to the head. Until it stops moving.

The man facing Rogue now is clad in a white and black outfit, and fully masked, but she can see Jean-Philippe blue eyes through the mask eye-slits. "Are you alright?" He asks as he changes the ammo clips from his (white metal) handguns.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is hit by that shocking wave and it does slow her for a moment since it makes her muscles seize and her body shake, but she detaches herself from it and a second later she just shakes her head and lets her eyelids flick away the uncomfortable sensation of it. "God. Dang it. I hate electricity!" She gasps there-after before her stare shoots over to where Jean-Phil is.

When she sees him in his true form, or his outfit at least, she looks him over and then regards his question to her--having caught some of what he'd done in this fight. "I'm fine." She says to him then a second later her eyes narrow at his, greens to blues. "Who the hell are you anyway?" She then asks, considering his false appearance and now this thug attack...

Fantomex has posed:
"Well, now," Fantomex bows with a flourish, "I am Fantomex, at your service," he announces. "Also, Jean-Philippe Charles, but shh," he raises a finger to his lips. "That is my secret identity. Only for friends."

The guns are back to the holsters, and a couple police cruisers are coming fast. Fantomex slides aside, as if that was enough so they won't see him. And they won't. "I was here just to spoil a little trade between people I quite dislike. Sentinel specs for Hydra, plasma rifles for Stryker's little private army. We don't want Sentinels screaming about sprouting two heads if we cut one, oui? It would be bizarre even for giant murderbots. Also, there is a hefty bounty for Valkenburg, dead or alive. Do you want half of it?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue crosses her arms over her stomach and watches Jean-Phil spill a bit about himself, she smirks at it. "I see." She states, then her eyes shift over to the arriving police who'll no doubt want to talk to her about it, at least she still has her old ID from the Avengers days, so it still holds a bit of weight with keeping her out of too much Police trouble, in fact it sometimes leads to the Police being actually NICE to her, imagine that.

The Belle looks back to Fantomex then and shakes her head at the question of a reward. "No, no, thats fine. I don't need it." She has a job, and some money saved up. "I appreciate that you were here t'stop these guys, or lure them so we could both stop them though. I mean..." Her eyes look the scene over and then back to Fantomex. "That was fairly messed up, right? Where do these guys even GET stuff like this? Who's makin' this stuff in their parents basement?" She grunts out an exasperated exhale, irritation thick on her tone.

"But yeah, glad to have... uh, helped, I guess?"

Fantomex has posed:
Fantomex hrms. "Hydra has deep pockets, criminal empire and all, and the Friends... now, that is a good question," but then the Frenchman shrugs. "Pleasure to meet you, and see your work. I am a bit of a fan since you joined the Avengers. And you are more beautiful in person, too."

But the policemen are getting close, warily. And Fantomex decides it is time to vanish. "I am sure we will meet again, but for now, I bid you adieu."