Owner	Pose
Josh Foley	It is not the nicest of nights. The day had been rainy, for the first time in weeks. The rain let up, but the streets are still wet. The slightly cooler temperatures mean Baskin Robbins is not as crowded tonight as usual. The four from Xavier's were more than able to get a table. The two girls working behind the counter spent more of their time talking than doing anything else. And the flavour of the month is butterscotch tart. "Check your rounds, and count off when you're ready. You know the target," says a man's voice with a British accent over the comms. "The one with the goggles is on the list, too. Don't waste ammo on the others if they're not in the way." A series of voices call back by number. "Okay. Give her the cherry on top," the British man says. There is a single, massive gunshot that echoes through the streets from a second story window across the street from Baskin Robbins. A single .50 calibre round flies through the front window, over the heads of a pair of teens on a date and slams into Rogue's temple. "Damage report?" the British man calls out on the radio.
Rogue	Rogue is putting her empty ice cream cup into the trash can when the attack comes. She's got a smile on her because of some of the banter that had been said, or been in the process of being said, and when the window cracks and the bullet slaps the side of her head? The damage is... her hair wafts a bit around her shoulder, and the bullet clatters to the ground at her feet and rolls over toward the counter where the register is. Rogue just looks up and over to the window. She sees the hole in the glass, then she looks over to her friends at the table. "Someone just shot me." She says to them in disbelief. "Someone actually just shot me, in the head..." With that said, Rogue starts to move toward the front doors, with a purpose in her stride!
Negasonic	Ellie was up getting a second ice cream to go in shake form, because hell if she isn't taking advantage of being off the grounds and not getting more ice cream. The snarky angry teen actually was laughing at the witty commentary when everything goes pear shaped. Why do people say pear shaped, where did this metaphor come from, why are pears bad shapes. Her shake gets thrown in alarm right on of the girls working behind the counter, seriously not on purpose as she wanted that shake pretty bad a moment ago but it is better than her throwing an explosive charge anywhere. "They what...?" she looks around at the window and then at Rogue marching out. "... oh." though to her nonbulletproof credit she ducks and moves to the side in case the sniper is after all of them. Letting Rogue make a target and go first.
Psylocke	" - swimsuit edition," Betsy Braddock is in mid-rant, or as much of rant as someone speaking with such a refined accent can muster, "But it's all about ''instagram'' followers, if you'll believe ''that'' - ridiculous, I know, but they don't - " Her head jerks to the side as the window shatters and Rogue declares she was shot at, all at once. Her immediate response is to fall into a crouch, not quite so bullet proof herself and half-expecting more bullets to start flying. The air about her shimmers as she erects a hasty telekinetic shield, maintaining cover even as she tries to stick with Rogue and move towards the doors behind her. She doesn't pause to check if anyone is injured, nor does she try to help out anyone in danger. Her first instinct is ''fight'' as the assassin within (or without - semantics!) focuses her mind. "Can you see where it came from?" Does Rogue have super-vision or something? Betsy doesn't quite know, but it seems like something she'd have with the flying and strength and invulnerability and what not.
Jubilee	Jubilee is dangling a cherry above her lips by the stem and lowering it slowly into her mouth when the sound of the bullet interrupts her. She looks around, her hair bouncing in an array of curls around her brass goggles atop her head. "Ladies. Get down, don't make yourself a target!" Her cherry hits the table uneaten, and bounces, then rolls away. She quickly looks up at the hole in the window and pulls down her goggles to protect her eyes. "Showtime! Avert your eyes..." She sends a single flickering white plasmoid out through the bullet hole in the glass. She lifts her hands quickly, and the glimmering spark explodes into a blinding light in front of the shop. People outside are warned away and sent running in other directions, and partially obscures the parlor from anyone trying to target Rogue.
Josh Foley	"Damn it," whispers the sniper in the darkened second story window across the street. "Looks like she's pissed now!" He readies another shot for Rogue's chest. The sudden blinding light causes him to jerk just as he was pulling the trigger and the bullet goes wide. It glances off Betsy's shield and wedges itself into the wall. "What the hell?" the first young lady behind the counter yells at Negasonic in shock. Then Jubilee is yelling. The second grabs her shake covered compatriot and pulls her down to the ground behind the counter. The handful of other people in the shop do the same. "Right, cue it up, she's at the doors, 3... 2... 1... Fire in the hole!" the British man says over the comms. Shaped claymores go off just after Rogue steps or flies out of the store. There is a huge fireball that blows out from the against the ice cream parlour walls, sending concussive force lobbing anything loose over the row of parked cars into the street. The explosion envelopes Rogue.
Rogue	Rogue looks back over her shoulder after seeing and 'feeling' things outside, her Seventh Sense (actual +sheet skill) was tingling for her own safety. "Everyone, get down!" She shouts behind her, knowing Betsy was coming with her though and thats the only one she knew likely could if something bad were really about to happen like she felt it was. When the next shot rings out and zips past her, Rogue looks back to Betsy and the shield, then Jubilee's plasmoid explosion and she shields her eyes from the bright light of it. "Psylocke." Rogue says, her eyes looking out across the way. "We got incoming." Its then that the big explosion happens, it wraps around her and truly does envelope her in flame and debris! The chaos is like a true warzone in the middle of the otherwise sleepy city of Salem Center. But to the likely great dismay of the men (and women?) who just fired that explosive weapon at her, she emerges from it. Like an Arnold movie, Rogue walks right out of the fire with nary a scratch on her. Just her clothing on fire and burning up around her shoulders and legs. But she's ignoring the flames on her clothing, her eyes are forward on the source of the attack. Out of the explosion fully now, she starts to advance toward the people who just shot at her, lunging up into the air with both of her fists forward she shoots straight at them like a bullet out of a gun herself.
Negasonic	Rogue does not have to tell her to get down. She was already getting, going low and trying to get out of the view of those gloriously big windows so people can look in at all the ice cream. She also does not apologize to the person she threw her shake on. This counts as mitigating circumstances. "Think it is just one shooter?" Which is when everything blows up in a fireball out front where Rogue just stepped. The concussive force is not cool to watch hit a friend. Not cool at all. You would think Ellie would be use to it, but she isn't since when she does it the force is all directed outwards at people she wants to blow up, not teammates. "Mugglefucker." Someone is going to be very sorry once she figures out what to blow up.
Psylocke	"Rather!" Psylocke calls back to Rogue, opening her mouth to say something else when her friend is suddenly engulfed in an explosive ball of flame. Her shield strengthens momentarily around her, protecting her from the debris even at so close a range. About her fist, a blade of what looks like violet energy begins to manifest itself. She can't reach out to sense where the enemies may be without lowering the shield, so instead she simply climbs to her feet and charges out through the clearing smoke to follow Rogue into the danger zone. She's still blinking away the residual sparklies in her eyes after Jubilee's fireworks display, but that doesn't make the shadows any harder to spot. She darts for them quickly, looking to stay out of sight even as they begin to swallow her up.
Jubilee	Jubilee keeps the light burning in front of the store, but she moves toward the doors, looking for a shot at whoever is shooting. As the explosion detonates, she pauses only briefly, her eyes already shielded from the brightness of the blast, and she charges outside in its wake, tearing off her goggles to try and spot a shooter, looking up the the windows across the street for any clue. The brilliance of the light flickers but holds, as she looks for Rogue through the fire, then up and down the street, bewildered.
Josh Foley	"You should see the look on sweetie's face," the face sniper chuckles into the radio. He drops the rifle, backs up from the window and drops flat on the floor with his hands covering his head. "Rifles!" the British man orders. Six men pop up from cover behind parked cars, three on each side of the store about 25 feet out. They are carrying bizarre looking white and blue rifles. Professionals, they are already sighting when they pop up. Blue plasma blasts lance out from the rifles at Rogue. They are bright enough to give their own added shine to the street.
Rogue	Rogue knows that Betsy is likely with her, but she's also aware that the others are likely a bit jammed up behind the other side of that fireball in front of the store. But ultimately, she's just seeing red now (like the song says) and she's rushing at the men who are coming up from behind the cars with their fancy nerd guns. One thing about the Southern Belle, she's not that interested in what kind of cover these Call of Duty fanboys think they have. So she just flies right into the car that the nearest group is hiding behind, her intention is simple, slam the car into them, crush them if she has to... Rogue teeters on the 'no killing' rule as it stands, and when there are armed gunmen putting other people at risk? She starts to slide further and further toward the 'well they had it coming' answer to that rule's question. She slams right into the car they're hiding behind, and then lands on her feet, the fire on her clothes mostly out now, as the plasma blasts from the other gunment start pelting her body knocking even more of her clothing off, but otherwise doing absolutely nothing to her. She turns, toward those left standing now...
Negasonic	Ellie has been in a lot of danger room simulations and this isn't that different. Also several actual fights. I mean this is better than Sentinels right. It is the first ice cream themed fight though. She edges along to the windows, pretty much blown out from the explosion even if it was aimed outwards. Okay while those odds are probably still in Rogue's favor, it is kind of a jerk move to gang up on her like that. She dips her hand down, counts to three and hurls a kintetc blast at one of the guys and the cover he is behind. That is only a few tons of explosive blast in the snoot. "Eat shit asshole" mouthy.
Psylocke	In the flickering firelight left behind by the sudden explosion, Psylocke makes good use of the gathering shadows. She keeps a low profile, ducking out of the way of the gunfire that seems to be aiming entirely at Rogue, anyway. She'll have to buy another expensive bottle of bourbon for her favourite bullet sponge. As she approaches a particularly thick shadow, it seems to grow even darker around her and after a moment she disappears into it entirely. She moves through it, transporting herself somewhere a little more advantageous. When she emerges, it's behind one of the fancy rifle-armed gunmen. Her shield lowers as she lifts her fist, driving the point of the telekinetic blade in her fist directly into the small of the man's back. "Surprise."
Jubilee	Moving to Rogue's left, Jubilee lifts her hands, gritting her teeth with a visceral scream as a plume of blue plasma the size of a Volkswagen engulfs another car, and the shooters behind it.
Josh Foley	These mercenaries are professional soldiers, that much is clear. But they are not metahuman hunters. None were prepared for the ferocity of the counter-attack. Rogue flies into a Tercel. The struts snap and the wheels fold in when it hits the curb and keeps going. The man on the other side fired right over Rogue before the impact and had no time for anything else. He is lifted off his feet by the car moving sideway. There is a wet crunch when the car hits the concrete wall of the building behind him, with the mercenary in between. Blood drips out onto the sidewalk from between the vehicle and wall. Ellie's explosion is similarly unexpected. The mercenary behind the white Civic is tracking on Rogue when the explosion hits the car. The car lurches sideways, hits the curb and rolls over. It lands on top of the mercenary who screams and scrabbles helplessly at the sidewalk with his hands, but gets nowhere with the Honda on the lower half of his body. The spinal nerve root, between L5 and S1. Psylocke knows it well. Her blade cuts through the back of the man's tactical vest just above his belt and severs the nerves. The mercenary arches backwards then drops as his legs completely fail him. He drops his rifle on the way down. "My legs! I can't feel my fucking legs!" he yells, panicked and in pain. Jubilee's plasma... Mass... does not so much hit the Ford pickup truck the mercenary is using for cover. It washes over it like a searing tide. The plasma melts through the near side of the truck and its interior. The mercenary, his top half exposed over the truck bed, takes blue plasma to the side and falls smoking and half melted to the ground. "That about proves that. Clear out," the British man says over the comms. The man on the second floor of the building across from the ice cream parlour, crawls out of the room he is in on his belly, not daring to make a sound or pop his head up where it can be seen through the window. The remaining shooter on the right of the store turns and makes a run for an alley a few feet away. The other drops his rifle and puts up his hands. He backs away slowly from the car in front of him. "Pussy," the British man mutters over the radio.
Rogue	Rogue watches her teammates deal out the damage to the others and although she has a great suspicion that Scott and... Xavier, aren't gonna like the reaction they just gave to this surprise attack, it can't be argued that their reseponse was effective in getting these people... stopped. When the last man standing close to her drops his weapon and raises his hands, Rogue walks right over toward him and she grabs onto his clothing by the collar/chest and just throws him onto the sidewalk so that he'll slide across it several feet before she walks over toward him. She straddles him and crouches down to sit down on his stomach. The Belle then leans forward, her own attire all manner of tattered, her gloves even burned clean off. She tugs the man up by his shoulders and looks into his eyes, her wild two-toned hair blowing in the wind. "We're gonna be best... friends. You'n me." She says to him then, her smoky voice matching the thick smoke in the air all around them.
Negasonic	"Okay. That maybe should have been a one or two second charge.. they aren't giant robots." she is mostly talking to herself as she peers out the window. Okay it looks like the remaining people are captured now from her vantage point. It is probably not a good idea to throw more explosions out onto the street. Honestly thank goodness for all the smoke and people running away. Maybe no one saw what just happened or has it on cellphone cameras.
Psylocke	"Quiet." Betsy's words are less a request and more a telepathic suggestion to the man currently screaming at her feet about his severed spinal cord, finding that 'on' switch in his brain and flicking it to 'off' so he can just sleep through the worst of the pain. That done, she lets her telekinetic power ebb into the background and instead stretches out telepathically to try and locate anymore minds with hostile intent. Around her eyes, a purple butterfly begins to shimmer into view - the hallmark of her abilities. <They look like they're retreating,> her voice speaks directly into the heads of her fellow mutants, she glances down at the man at her feet, <we might need an ambulance.>
Jubilee	"Dude...calm down. You act like you never saw plasma before," Jubilee chides as she approaches the plasma shooter whose armour is melted on one side. "Uh...dude?" She approaches the guy, still smouldering, and toes him with one boot. "Dude? Please don't be dead." In her head, Jubilee hears something like a staticky CB radio. <KsshhhLook ksshhh treatingksshhh.> She looks up and around for Betsy. "I don't care who's treating, I can't think about ice cream at a time like this..I mighta just killed a guy..." She toes him again. "Melty. Dude. Get. Up."
Josh Foley	The merc Rogue throws skitters across the ground to a stop some distance away. He groans in pain. His eyes widen when Rogue pulls him toward her. He grimaces and turns his face away. He makes no attempt to do anything to the super mutant or try to get out of her grip. Behind Negasonic, the two girls working in the store are telling the few people inside to come with them out the back door. A quick glance over the shoulder is enough to confirm that taking pictures is the last thing on the minds of any of these people. They want /away/. The man pinned under the rolled over car passes out. The one at Psylocke's feet goes quiet instantly at her telepathic command. Sadly, the man behind the pickup truck is truely baked. If he is alive, he will not be for very much longer.
Rogue	Rogue stands up and takes the Mercenary up with her. She turns to Betsy and drags him over to her where she drops him off. "Psylocke." She says. "Get everything outta their heads that ya can. I'm gonna go..." She looks back over toward the one that she hit with the car. "I'm gonna go see if that guy is still breathin', if so I'll take'im t'the hospital. Its just a few blocks from here." Rogue then rights herself, and with her tattered clothing all kinds of a mess, she looks over to Negasonic. "N.T!" She gets Ellie's attention. "Is that guy you hit a goner?" She asks as she starts to jog to the one she'd downed first. "Check his pulse!" She says further then.
Negasonic	"I mean.. he may be in a wheelchair but I am sure he isn't dead." she hopes. She slides out of the icecream shop through the whole no window .. window .. and jogs to check on him. "He is going to need a lot of morphine but he is just unconscious.. definitely needs medical attention. Also cops are likely coming right..." she finishes checking the pulse.
Psylocke	"Right-o," Betsy says almost nonchalantly, crouching down alongside the unconscious man at her feet and placing a hand over his face. Immediately she begins to dig through his brain, using the benefit of the subconscious rising to the surface to pull out whatever useful tidbits about their identities and associations to the surface. The butterfly about her face beats its wings in time with her heartbeat, her eyes closed as she focuses intently on the task assigned her. She glances up after a moment. "I'd rather not be on the evening news. I've got a career I'm trying to reinvigorate."
Jubilee	"Dude?" This time is is more of a plaintive plea as she toes Half-Baked one last time. "Well, shit." She gets down on her knees beside him and feels for a pulse. It's there, but faint. She pulls out her cell phone and hits a contact, and sits staring at the man blankly for a moment, then perks up. Then looks crestfallen. "Hi, Josh...It's me. Um...we got ambushed. It's contained now. But it's...I think this guy is dying. He tried to kill Rogue. They all did. But this guy, I hit...and he got melty. And I don't know if you're up to this, or if you need some time, or...like I don't know what to do. And I hate calling you. But I know if I don't then you'll ask why I didn't. But y'know...if you want to, or feel like you can...he could use some help. I know he's a bad guy but...I mean I don't know what to do. If you get this in time...We're over in front of the B--" There is a beep and the call disconnects. "Damn it!" She calls again, and waits...then quickly says "Baskin Robbins!" and hangs up. Quick and to the point was never her strong point, either.
Josh Foley	Betsy has no trouble rooting through the minds of the mercenaries they have that are alive. Their stories are all the same. Devon Johnson, a merc they have each come across over the years, took a contract through Mr. Wilks at the Continental. Mr. Wilks is old as dirt and acts as a middle man and escrow. The Continental is in Gotham and comes with a whole host of forebodding and rules and stories of very powerful people disappearing for breaking the rules inside the place. Betsy probably already knows all about it from her previous days. The Continental has hotels in major cities all over the world and is one of the few remaining neutral grounds in the age of superheroes. The job was to test Rogue, and take out anyone else on a list of target they have seen if seen anywhere in town; Josh Foley, Doug Ramsey, Jubilation Lee, Wanda Maximoff, Hank McCoy, Samuel Guthrie, Armor. They have no idea where to find these people other than that Rogue has been seen often enough in Westchester. They have been staking out the area for a week waiting for a sighting. The rifles were the main point of the test, to see if they would work on Rogue. The contract included instructions on where to find them, a dead drop in Port Newark. In the distance, sirens start up. It sounds like the police have finally got the message. Jubilee's guy needs a lift to the hospital if he is going to live, and even then. The nearest is Salem Centre. The others who are alive will survive until ambulances arrive.
Negasonic	Having finished checking her guy out she stands, stretches... pauses... ducks back down and comes back up with one of the plasma rifles. "Yoink." turning it over slowly in her hands. "Okay right. These are totally Atlantean.. also I'm keeping it... and that sounds like the fuzz we should splitzky."
Psylocke	Betsy furrows her brow as she pulls forth the information from the unconscious mercenary, disseminating it telepathically amongst the rest of the group even if Jubilee's shields do rebuff a chunk of it. Someone needs to invest in a telepathic antenna or something. "Come on, come on," she beckons quickly to the rest of the group as she nears some particularly thick shadows. Who needs a fuzzy blue elf when you have a body-swapped purple Englishwoman for all your teleporting needs? Once they're close enough, the shadows are suddenly a door leading back to the safety of the Mansion.